THE ATLANTIC SALMON.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1922, Page 3

THE ATLANTIC SALMON.

EXTENSION CONTEMPLATED. STOCKING ADDITIONAL RIVERS. Dealing with the success attained in the acclimatisation of the quinnat salmon in New Zealand waters the Hon. G. J. Anderson, Minister for Marine, stated that it was now 54 years since the first shipment of Atlantic salmon arrived in New Zealand. This shipment was brought out in the ship Celestial Queen, which arrived at Port Chalmers on May 2, 1868. The shipment consisted of 200,000 eggs, obtained from the rivers Tay and Tweed, in Scotland, and the eggs survived the voyage. Up to 1902, about 15 shipments were brought out, but several of tbe earlier shipments arrived in bad condition, and none had a loss of less than 25 per cent. Up to 1908 there was no proof that the fish had been acclimatised, as no salmon had been found which had returned from the sea, and were sexually matured. The Government then decided to make a vigorous and systematic effort to establish the Atlantic salmon in one of the best rivers, and the Waiau River, in Southland, was chosen as the most suitable. Three shipments of eggs were imported from 1908 to 1911, 250,000 from Eastern Canada in 190 S and 1,000,000 in 1909. and again in 1911 from Great Britain.

The opinion was held by Bhitish and other authorities that the “homing,” or “parent" river instinct was strongly marked in the Atlantic salmon, and this seemed to be borne out by the fact that the large number of fish observed spawning had been in the Upukuroro River, where they were originally reared. Now that the acclimatisation of the Atlantic salmon had become an established fact, it was the intention of the Government to collect as large a quantity of eggs as possible next season for the purpose of stocking some other suitable river, and to follow the same method of stocking, as had proved so successful in the case of the quinnat salmon.