Trochus Poaching.
p. 31 · Read in the full issue
Need for Fast Patrol Boat in N.G.
Mr. Featherstone Phibbs, Who
has been Collector of Customs at Rabaul for the past 18 years, ar rived in Sydney on leave by the “Nan kin” on April 20.
Mr. Phibbs said that complaints of trochus shell poaching had come from many parts of New Guinea and the Ad ministration was powerless to stop it because it had no vessel fast enough to overhaul the poachers. The illicit shellers used fast, Diesel-engined vessels of about 100 tons and the procedure was to make a sudden raid on a trochus reef, by sending out many small boats, each with a few men who gathered quickly all the shell, and then depart hurriedly.
Only the best shell was taken and the poachers were always far away before there was any chance of pursuit.
The only chance of stopping this stealing, declared Mr. Phibbs, is to keep a fast patrol boat constantly in the area. After a few poachers had been seized and their cargo confiscated, the practice would cease.