DRY WEATHER AND HEAT.

Shannon News, 17 February 1928, Page 2

DRY WEATHER AND HEAT.

LITTLE EFFECT ON TROUT. BUT SHELL-FISH SUFFER. The effect on the prolonged drought upon fish has been discussed a good deal in angling circles, in view of the lapid diminution in the flow of most of the streams. Last, month a heavy mortality was noticed in . tlie shell-fish at the Beach, the sand being thickly strewn with thousands of tohemuijj&as, pipis, and cockles in a dead or dying condition, and this was attributed by the Maoris to the rise in the temperature of the sea-water. So far as fresh water fish are concerned, the secretary of the Wellington Acclimatisation District (Mr G-. J. Dasent) states he has received no reports of" undue mortality anionjj trout from the rangers. Mr Dasent believes that it is a delusion to think that because a river or stream drops below its average height in mid-summer the trout ':hat live in the stream should perish. After all. he said, was it not natural that streams in mid-summer should be lower than usual, and was it not just as natural that the trout should cxpeiience warm water in February just as human beings experience warm weather. Ho believes that tne trout have an instinct which warns them of coming trouble, and that they get down stream and perhaps out to sea before that trouble cvcrtiikes them. "I should say that eight out of every ten get away safely. Ranger Andrew, of the Palmerston North district, does not think we lose -.nai'y fish through drought conditions. Dead fish have been picked up here and there, but in any case, without drought that might readily occur. So I don't think that we stand to lose many of our trout during the summer, other than those who respond to the lure of the fishermen." •

"I'll tell you a peculiar thing," he proceeded. "Wo have found that young troit on transfer travel much uetrer in a fast-moving motor-car than they do on the railways. You would not think that trout would evince. any interest in how they travelled, but the fact remains that they like the most modern form of travel best. We judge it on the results of many journeyings by rail and motor, having always found that there are lc>s ieaths when the fry arccarried by motor. The reason, I think, is that by the jolting of the car over toads that are not always too smooth, the water becomes agitated and aerated, whilst the smoother railway travelling makes for stagnancy." Mr Dasent mentioned the disappearance of the Ohau river for some distance, which frequently occurs in dry summers, and said that the Otaki river had been very low for some time, past, and in places is nothing but a chain of pools, but he does not think that there is any justification for-worry on the part of the society. There havo been occasions when the rangers' have had to net trout low down in the Ohau r«nd Oraki and rush them up to the belters waters above.