THE FISHING QUESTION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4090, 30 August 1884, Page 2

THE FISHING QUESTION.

[To the Editor oi? the Daily Telegraph.] Sir, —I hope you will publish this letter as it does not in the least relate to neighbors, quarrels, but it should be of interest to all men earning a living by fishing. lam not going to say much about licenses, only this —that any man caughtfishing with a "scear" or hauling net inside the inner harbor above the bridge should forfeit his license for tho first offence, and his boat and nets for the second offence of the same kind. I suggest these penalties for the reason that there are some people so indifferent to the necessary requirments of their families that they will not go to the trouble of making any more than one hauling net, and with that they will go all over the shallow water and r_e the bottom over and over again and all the summer through, killing and destroying small flounders by hundreds. In one haul they may get six bundles of flounders, which would he about twenty fish, but generally in one such haul there are from 50 to 500 small flounders, too small for sale, which are sometimes put back into tho water, but oftener — well, never mind. H they are returned to the water they would mostly die from exposure to the sun while lying out on the beach with' sand and mud in their gills. The consequence is that when winter comes those who have not taken the trouble of making set nets to the extent of half a mile in length cannot get' a living, and cry out that there are no fish in the bay, forgetting that they destroyed thousands in the summer, which might have been caught in the winter with set nets. Thus these people might if they liked have kept themselves in plenty of employment, and supplied the public with fish all the winter. Hauling, Sir, should be put a stop to in the inner harbor. It destroys tho feeding ground, and disturbs the fish. There is plenty of room outside from Petane to Clive for all who want to haul. Threefourths of the fishermen have no hauling nets, and wish their use could be stopped, but they have to suffer as much as those who destroy young fish by using them. —I am, kc, j^ A Fisherman. Western Spit, August 30, ISB4.