THE SILVER HORDE.

Otaki Mail, 27 September 1922, Page 4

THE SILVER HORDE.

—.—_ 4 SALMON' FOR THE AVAIiiAL. BIG LOT OT FRY LIBERATED. FUTURE INDUSTRY FOR MARLBOROUGH. The Child' Inspector of Fisheries. Mr L. F. Avson. accompanied by Mr H. Bebbington, the manager of the Hakatnrnmeu lish hatcheries, spent the best part of last, week at Te Rou. about thir-ty-six miles from Blenheim, liberating the quimint salmon ova which lias just been hatched out there. In all, some 648,000 fry were liberated, and they were a line sturdy lot. which may he expected to thrive well. The young lish were liberated in Timms’ Creek, a tributary of the AA'airau. Chatting with an Express reporter prior to his departure for Wellington, Mr Ayson said the lot of fry just liberated was one of the largest dealt with in tlic Dominion up to the present, and had hatched out much better than he had hoped for in his most confident expectations. He said there had been encouraging reports regarding the stocking of the AA'airau and he thought that in the course of a very few years now the salmon industry would be a very important feature of Marlborough commerce. Mr Ayson expects that the salmon from the AA'airau will find their way into the Bounds, and that a very important industry, much akin lo that which is at present carried on in the Puget Sounds of America, will be the result.

“The increase of the quinnat salmon in .South Island seas and rivers has been so rapid in recent years that the .Marine Department has decided that the time has arrived when the fish may be put to commercial use.’’ stated Mr Arson. Arrangements were being made to catch the quinnnt. at sea on a large scale during the coming season. The intention was to fit up a vessel with trolling gear similar to that used on the Pacific coast of America, where immense quantities of quinnat were caught annually in the coastal seas. The experiment by the department teas intended as a demonstration to fishermen of the methods employed in salmon fishing, and it was hoped to catch sufficient quantities to encourage private enterprise to enter this branch of the fishing industry. Trolling was really the term applied to fishing with spinning bait. Netting was not practicable in most of the rapid rivers of Canterbury and North Otago, opposite whose shores the experiment would be undertaken, but the fish was now becoming established in some rivers with tidal mouths where netting was possible.

The Canterbury rivers, and particularly the Rangitata and Waitaki. wehe literally packed with tens of thousands of quinnat last season, said Mr Arson. When netting the fish in the upper reaches of the Waitaki for spawning purposes, the officials of the Marine Department took large numbers, which averaged 2'Jlb.. with many turning the scales up to 4olb. and 401 b.. and several at well over oUlb. From some of the larger females, as many as 10,'J00 to 12,000 eggs were stripped, a figure that was equal to the highest recorded of the American quinnat. This was proof of the prosperity of the fish in their new habitat.

The Atlantic salmon had at length begun to show up in the Waiau River, •Southland. Quite a number had been identified in the L'pokororo tributary, near Lake Te Anau. This stream was heavily stocked with Atlantic salmon fry by the Marine Department in 1909, 1910. and 1911. The best authorities in the Old World agreed that the Atlantic salmon had the parent river or horning instinct highly developed and the appearance of the rPh, after a decade, in this stream pointed to the fact that the .systematic and vigorous efforts on the part of the department were at last bearing fruit.