CRAYFISH

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1926, Page 3

CRAYFISH

TASMANIAN POACHERS. SYDNEY, June 17. A man possessing the name of .Challenger should make an ideal policeman, and so it lias proved with Cliicf-Con-stable Challenger, the Tasmanian Inspector of Fisheries, who lias had many exciting encounters with illegal i.ravfishers off the Tasmanian coast, and in the Bass Strait towards the Victorian shore. He is known to these evildoers as the “police terror of the seas,” and he has rightly earned his title' by his indefatigable and courageous exploits. Fishermen now using crayfish pots in Tasmanian waters have to pay fees ranging from £l6 to £l4lO. according to tho size of the boats. They cannot catch crayfish under a certain size. Constable Challenger’s chief duties are to run down unlicensed fishing vessels, or to detect- the catching of undersized fish. The licenses and the profits from legal crayfishing add considerably to tlio revenue of the Island State, and henco Challenger’s curbing influence on wrongdoers is of considerable value to his Government. The restrictions were imposed primarily by the Government to prevent depletion of Tasmanian fishing beds; before that t.he use of pots for crayfishing was illegal. When their use was forbidden, the fishermen kept constant vigil for Challenger, because of liTs ingenuity in detecting them. He has been known to bide in a boat before it left port, and appear suddenly on deck when the pots full of live crayfish were being pulled aboard. On other occasions he Las

swum great distances in the dark, and clambered aboard tlio boats unseen. Altogether. Challenger has confiscated twenty-live fishing boats. STR E NUO U S EX CO VXTER S. One of Challenger’s most strenuous encounters occurred last year. He boarded a boat on the- east coast of Tasmania, and was attacked by the crew of four. Tie fought on deck with tho captain, and both fell overboard. They scrambled into a dinghy, where the tight was continued. Challenger was knocked out, taken ashore, ami the boat put to sen. Next day. knowing that ho would never shake off the determined Challenger, the captain of tho. Imat surrendered, was sentenced for the attack on Challenger, and later bought his vessel hack for £ I<M.lO from the Fisheries Commission. On one of the occasions on which Challenger hid in the boat before it left port, the boat anchored near the shore. Challenger swam ashore, and watched operations. Finally the Lo >t moved out further, and he waited all night in tho bush. Then lie swam out to the boat, rushed the captain, and

obtained evidence of illegal fishing. It- was Challenger who sailed the boat back to Hobart. Only last week Ibis indefatigable man added to the list of his captures bv seizing a. vessel not far from the Vfetorian coast, ami calmly dispatched a telegram of advice to his superior officers in Hobart Ho ill an obscure village on the Victorian coast. But those superior officers have been accustomed to Challenger s movements, and though they may not hear from him for clays, or even weeks, they are never surprised to receive a telegram from him hundreds of miles away announcing his latest capture. Ho has now been equipped with a fast, launch, and this is expected to a‘bl to the inconveniences Chief-Const a ole Challenger causes illegal fishers.