SALMON' IN NEW ZEALAND.

Shannon News, 29 September 1922, Page 2

SALMON' IN NEW ZEALAND.

BIG LOT OF FRY LIBERATED.

FUTURE INDUSTRY FOR MARLBOROUGH.

The Chief Inspector of Fisheries, Mr L. F. Ayson, accompanied by Mr H. Bebbington, the manager of the Hakataramea fish hatcheries, spent the best

part of last week at Te Rod, about thir--ty-six miles from Blenheim, liberating the quinnat salmon ova which has just been hatched out there. In all, some 648,000 fry were liberated, and they were a fine sturdy lot, which may bo expected to thrive well. Ihe young fish were liberated in Timms’ Creek,

a tributary of the Wairau. 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 the 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 Wairau 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 Wairau will fiud their way into the Sounds," and that a very important industry, much akin to 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 Ayson. Arrangements were being made to catch the quinnat 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 wero caught annually in the coastal seas. The experiment by the department was intended as a demonstration to fishermen of the methods employed m salmon fishing, and it was hoped to catch sufficient quantities to encourage private enterprise to enter this branch of the fishing industry. Trolling wa3 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 shorcs/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, were’ literally packed with tens of thousands of quinnat last season, said Mr Ayson. 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 -201 b., with many turning the scales up to 401 b. and 401 b., and several at well over 501 b. From some of the larger females, as many as 10,000 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 TJpokororo tributary,, near Lake Te Anau. This stream was. heavily stocked with Atlantic salmonfry 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 oi homing instinct highly developed and the appearance of the fish, 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.