PROTECTION OF FISH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 765, 11 September 1929, Page 6

PROTECTION OF FISH

FURTHER RESTRICTIONS IN THE GULF NEW REGULATIONS PENDING (The SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter) PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Tuesday. Further restrictions on trawling and Danish seine-netting in the Hauraki Gulf are to be imposed. This was indicated by . the Minister of Marine, the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, this evening. The restrictions will not be imposed before April 1, 1930. Under the regulations made in April last the position with regard to trawling was that it was prohibited inside a line from Colville Bay to Tiri Tiri, to an intersection of a line from Cape Colville to Rodney Point, and thence to Rodne3 r Point. That prohibition was applicable from March 16 to November 15. From November 16 to March 15 trawlers were prohibited inside a line from Cape Colville to Rodney Point. Under the regulations, which it is proposed to bring into force in April, 1930, the trawlers will be kept outside the Rodney Point-Cape Colville line for eight months of the year, instead of six months as at present. Under the recent regulations Danish seiners were kept outside: —(a) Coromandel Harbour; (b) a line from Deadman’s Point to Ponui light, and all the area between Ruakura Point and Matuku Bay westward through the Tamaki Strait and Waitemata Harbour. In addition, during the schooling season from November 16 to January 31, they were kept out of the area from Kauri Point to Takatu Point. Under the proposed regulations the inshore area lying betwen Coromandel Harbour and Colville Bay will be closed altogether to Danish seining. In addition, the Waiheke Passage and Big Bay (Onetangi), on Waiheke Island, will be closed.

“These proposals are not necessarily the limit of restriction . which may be placed upon fishing in the gulf,” said the Minister. “However, until there has been an opportunity of making further investigation as to the result of the proposed regulations, the department does not feel justified in going any further. It may possibly be the case that the desired result, namely, the protection of the fisheries, may be achieved by further net mesh regulations, but in order to justify this method of protection investigation should definitely prove, one way or the other, whether the existing mesh regulations permit the killing of an unclue number of under-sized fish.’