(1912– ).

Industrialist.

A new biography of Fisher, Woolf appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Woolf Fisher was born at Wellington on 20 May 1912 and educated at Mount Albert Grammar School, Auckland. In 1934 he became co-founder of Fisher and Paykel Ltd. and is now managing director. He led a New Zealand Trade Mission to Australia in 1959 and in June 1960 became chairman of the New Zealand Steel Investigating Co. Ltd. In the same year he established an £80,000 Woolf Fisher Trust to endow travelling fellowships for post-primary teachers. He was a keen supporter of Lord Cobham'sOutward Bound Movement and became first president of the trust when it was set up in April 1961. In 1963 he was appointed to the Trade Promotion Council. Besides these interests Woolf Fisher is a director of the New Zealand Insurance Co. Ltd; a council member of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce; a committee member of the Auckland Racing Club; president of the Auckland Polo Club; trustee of the Institute of Economic Research; and a member of the Auckland Rotary Club. He also owns the Ra Ora Stud at East Tamaki. He was knighted in January 1964.

In recent years, due mainly to the activity of Japanese fishing vessels around New Zealand coasts, the Government was urged to increase the area of sea within which only New Zealand registered or New Zealand based vessels would be permitted to operate. These representations were acted upon in the session of 1965 when a Bill was introduced into Parliament defining the limits of New Zealand's 3-mile territorial sea in accordance with the rules laid down in the 1958 Geneva Convention, and providing for the establishment of a further 9-mile exclusive fishing zone for the use of the domestic industry.

by Brian Turnbull Cunningham, B.SC., Senior Fishery Officer, Marine Department, Wellington.

A research programme has been formulated and is being prosecuted to provide information to assist with the development and management of the fishery resources. In this programme, work is being done on snapper and tarakihi to determine their habits and life history, growth rate and natural mortality, as well as to assess the effect of fishing on the various populations. Considerable numbers of snapper and tarakihi have been tagged but recoveries have been rather disappointing, although returns are sufficient to indicate the principal migrations and to confirm growth rates determined by other methods. Similar work has been done on flatfish populations in Lake Ellesmere, Tasman Bay, and on the east coast of the South Island. A comprehensive study of crayfish, to elucidate their habits, life history, growth rates, mortality, and effects of fishing is under way, and similar work is being done on elephant fish. Work on shellfish, other than oysters, has so far been confined to studies of the composition and density of the various populations.

At present, an extensive biological survey of the Foveaux Strait oysters is under way. With respect to whales, work has been confined to tagging whales on the northward and southward migration and to studying the age composition of the catches of the whaling stations. This research has now ceased.

The occurrence of tuna in New Zealand waters is also receiving attention with a view to determining whether the fishing and canning of tuna could be developed in New Zealand.

Frozen and prepared fish and frozen crayfish tails comprise the most important exports of fishery products. The total value of fishery products exported in 1963 was £1,475,450.

Imports are confined to canned and prepared fish, mainly salmon, sardines and herrings. The quantity imported fluctuates from year to year and in 1963 was valued at £995,867.

Principal among these is fish oil. In 1963, 269,272 Ib of liver were processed and produced 16,952 gals, of oil. The canning industry has also made considerable use of the less popular kinds of fish which are processed as pet foods. Whale meat is also incorporated in this product.

In Foveaux Strait the dredge oysters, which are the most abundant and most important shellfish species, are taken mainly from depths of 10–18 fathoms and the production over the last two seasons has been approximately 100,000 sacks p.a. The production of the rock oyster fishery, on the other hand, which is confined to the intertidal zone in the Auckland area – the Hauraki Gulf, Whangarei Harbour, Kaipara Harbour, and Bay of Islands – averages 4,000 sacks p.a.

The principal mussel fishery, with an annual production of 25,000 sacks, is confined to the Hauraki Gulf. Toheroas are found on beaches of the west coast of North Auckland, on the Wellington west coast at Waitarere, at Ohope in the Bay of Plenty, and also in Southland at Oreti Beach and in Te Waewae Bay. Stocks are not good and only small quantities are canned in the two months open season. Paua and scallops are both taken commercially in small quantities.

Within the last three years there have been renewed efforts, with some success, to develop eel fisheries, mainly in the Auckland area and in Canterbury at Lake Ellesmere.

Where conditions are suitable, crayfish occur right round the New Zealand coast and the commercial catch is predominantly the one species Jasus lalandii. A less common species, J. verreauxi, is taken commercially mainly in the vicinity of Mercury Bay, but isolated specimens do occur in most North Island waters. Although occasionally some catches of crayfish are made in trawls, the method universally adopted is fishing with baskets or pots. This fishery has expanded very considerably since 1947, when an export market for the tails developed with the U.S.A., and it has become the most valuable single species landed. The southern and south-western parts of the South Island produce over 60 per cent of the total catch. Fishing is done by boats from Bluff and Stewart Island, and also from Dunedin, Westport, and Greymouth. The total catch of crayfish increased rapidly from 1947 to a peak in 1956 when 130,815 cwt were landed. It has since declined quite appreciably but in areas where the fishery has been long established production is relatively steady.

This fishery is based on the catching of juvenile or larval form of the inanga or adult whitebait as they enter the rivers from the sea. The area where most commercial fishing is done is now confined to the west coast of the South Island, and it is for this area only that records of catches are kept.

Ports where landings were in excess of 10,000 cwt of wet fish and the principal species landed; i.e., in excess of 5,000 cwt (1964 production figures):

Sn = Snapper; TV = Trevally; Ta = Tarakihi; H = Hapuku; EF = Elephant fish; G = Gurnard; BC = Blue cod; So = Sole.

Since 1951, when the total landed catch was 408,365 cwt, the total quantity landed has gradually increased until in 1964 it was 589,384 cwt. The principal species have been snapper and tarakihi which together comprise approximately 50 per cent of the total quantity landed. The approximate percentages of the most abundant species are as follows:

Apart from blue cod and hapuku which are mainly line caught, the other species referred to are taken principally by trawling. Snapper occur mainly from Tasman Bay northwards on the west coast to North Cape, and southwards on the east coast from North Cape to Napier in the water out to about 40 fathoms. Tarakihi occur principally in the waters beyond 40 fathoms and are taken mainly off the east coast from the Bay of Plenty to Dunedin. The sea is shallower on the west coast, where fishing takes place, and this could be the reason why catches of tarakihi have not been so great. Gurnard, too, has a general distribution in the shallower waters, but show particularly in the commercial catch at Napier and Timaru. Elephant fish, which occur principally in the South Island east coast waters, form the basis of an important trawl fishery in the Canterbury area, both to the north and to the south of Banks Peninsula.

Blue cod and hapuku, which are mainly associated with rocky bottoms, are caught principally by line methods. Cook Strait is the principal centre of the hapuku fishery, but this species is caught also at many other localities, including Akaroa. The Bluff-Stewart Island area and also the Chatham Islands are the principal line-fishing areas for blue cod.

The production of flatfish species is confined to the shallower waters. Flounders are taken by set nets in the Kaipara Harbour, in the Firth of Thames, and in Lake Ellesmere, while they form a significant part of the trawl catch in the shallower waters along the Canterbury coast. There is also a significant flounder fishery at Te Waewae Bay in Southland and, where the bottom is suitable, in the vicinity of Waikawa. Lemon soles are the major commercial trawl fishery on the Otago coast. English soles predominate in the areas off Greymouth and also Hawke Bay.