SCHNAPPER TRAWLING IN HAURAKI GULF

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 129, 22 August 1927, Page 9

SCHNAPPER TRAWLING IN HAURAKI GULF

FISH SHORTAGE FEARED INVESTIGATIONS BY CHIEF INSPECTOR A PROBLEM of great concern Lo Aucklanders is occupying the attention of Mr. A. E. Hefford, Chief inspector of Fisheries, during his visit to Auckland. It is the question of schnapper trawling in the Hauraki Gulf. Later in the week Mr. Hefford will leave on a visit of inspection to the oyster beds at Kaipara. To-night he will deliver an address at the University College under the auspices of the Auckland Institute. Fisheries research, says Mr. Hefford, is in its infancy as far as New Zealand is concerned. As far as can be gathered in the absence of reliable records he is inclined to the view that food supplies in the New Zealand waters are not as large as might possibly be imagined. The man in the street believes that plenty of sea space means a good supply of fish. This is not correct. Fish live on supplies of food received from the land. And New Zealand, as we are all aware, is but a number of small islands, surrounded by a great area of water. PROHIBITING TRAWLING Some time ago the Government was petitioned to prohibit trawling in certain places, because it destroyed the spawn of the schnapper. “So one of the first things I set about doing when I came to look into the Hauraki Gulf problem,” says Mr. Hefford, “was to find out about the spaw’n of this commercial fish.” Apparently no one had ever taken the trouble to identify the so-called spawn by seeing what was hatched from it. The spawning grounds between Kawau and Tiri Tiri were visited by Mr. Hefford, who secured several sexually developed fish. Having ascertained what the egg taken direct from the parent fish was like, he then proceeded to fish for eggs in the sea. These so-called “wild” eggs were kept in a jar of sea water separate from the artificially fertilised ones. The result of this investigation was that both batches of eggs produced exactly the same kind of larval fish. It proved that the spawn, and likewise the newly-hatched larval fish, could not possibly be injured by any sort of fishing gear. It also established the identity of the schnapper egg and larva, so that it is possible without a great deal of trouble to locate spawning areas by merely taking two nettings. The fact was clearly established, likewise that the schnapper spawn did not rest on the ocean bed, as some fishermen imagined, but actually floated on the surface of the DEPLETED FISHERIES Fundamental considerations regarding the conditions of life in the sea, said. Mi. Hefford, and the chemical, physical and geographical factors involved, point to the conclusion that New Zealand is by no means as fortunately situated with regard to its marine fisherj r resources as superficial impressions have led people to believe. “The practical indications from the short history of our comparatively brief expjoitation of the richest of our fishing grounds,” he says, “brings about signs of depletion which give serious food for thought.” The necessity of a system of collecting fishery statistics as a means of throwing light on the trend of productivity or the tendency of depletion, was emphasised by the chief inspector.