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Hokitika Guardian, 19 October 1932, Page 4

Witij the wliitebajt season jn full swjng it is interesting to learn from tile annual report of t-lie Fisheries Department that the total amount of whitebait caught last year, was, according to returns submitted by local inspectors of fisheries, 2941 cwf (approximately) of an average wholesale value of 2s per lb, or about £ll per cwt, so that the total value would not be less than £32,000. During tile year, 66,386 lb of canned whitebait was exported, valued for Customs purposes at £459. The whitebait fisheries as a whole, though varying considerably from year to year owing to natural causes, have undoubtedly shown a general decline in every succeeding decade since the earlier years I of settlement, states the report. OverI fishing, drainage, cultivation, and stocking of lands and the predations of such introduced fish as trout ’ ave each in some degree contributed to this reduction, and there is urgent 1 need, before it is too late, to throw light on the extent and significance of each of these factors. The discovery of the peculiar circumstances connected with spawning of the species has already provided a solution to one’ prohlem of first importance. This knbwledge should be asked upon and measures taken not only for the protection of known spawning-grounds, but also for the restoration or creation of other grounds where conditions are naturally suitable. It is very much tp ho regretted that the state of .the Department’s finances has not permitted the extension of the work of locating spawning-places to all the more important whitebait waters of the Dominion, nor to carry into practice the recommendations previously made for the protection of those spawningplaces which are now known, Up to about two years ago the Department possessed no knowledge at all as to the natural propagation of whit' bait, and a somewhat vague and sketchy understanding of the exploitation of this fishery. While our understanding of the natural history of the species hais taken considerable step forward, our surveillance of the human operations, which involve not increase, hut decrease of the whitebait supplies, remains very imperfect and unsatisfactory, It is the job of the Fisheries Department to control and regulate the fisheries. It must first acquire the necessary knowledge or else the control may be exercised the wrong way. That is the basis of the advocacy for a licensing system for whitebait fishing—in order that we may get into closer touch with its operatives, and also that we may acquire funds to provide for investigational work besides doing more to ensure that every whitebaiter fishes fairly in competition with other fishermen. The question of the better regulation of these fisheries has for some time been matter of concern to fishermen, to local inspectors and rangers, and to the Department, and it is hoped that the revised set of regulations will he clearer, as well as more comprehensive, than the rcgiilftions issued at intervals over the last quarter of a century. Ideal regulations will never ha possible, because tile fashing conditions vary so much not only for each different river hut from place to place in the same river.