Report of 1950 Fisheries Survey

Making New Guinea Natives Fish Conscious

IT might be imagined that natives from the coastal regions of Pacific islands whose traditional diet is fish (and coconuts) might be capable of providing themselves with same. But apparently this is not so. Between January and April this year a Commonwealth Fisheries ex pert was sent to Papua to teach the natives of the Samarai area to catch fish.

The expert was sent at the request of Mr. Cecil Able, of the Kwato Mission.

The official explanation was that Mr.

Able "wants to develop fishing in Papuan waters to improve native diet." It might be remembered that a couple of Kwato natives visited Sydney last year and inspected fish canneries; they said that they intended to start canneries with the help of the Australian Government in Papua. It was probably with something of this sort in view that the Common wealth provided the expert.

The officer sent was Mr. A. O’Grady who said that Papuans knew only how to fish with a line, a spear, with traps or by trolling. He instructed them in bait net fishing, trawls, drift nets, beach seine nets, long lines with up to 90 hooks and live bait pole-fishing for tuna. Under his super vision they also constructed nets and lines.

He said that they were eager to learn new methods and although much slower than Europeans at net-making were

painstakingly accurate.

THE report of the Fairwind fisheries expedition to P-NG waters has recently been released. (It will be remembered that in June, 1950, Fairwind vith five European officers, including

Captain Sandy Campbell, and 12 Papuans, was lost in a cyclone off the northern NSW coast when returning to Sydney after several months survey in New Guinea).

The report shows that the area east of Samarai around the Louisiades is most productive—this is an area of about 3,000 square miles abounding in shallow reef waters which apparently make good trolling grounds.

Reefs on the east coast of Bougainville are much smaller but produce the same species of fish and in good quantities.

In the Laughland-Woodlark Group in Papua shallow sandy bottom gives good results close in to shore but reef fishing here did not produce much fish. The Trobriands possess a fair area of shallow reef and good fishing but the small reefs of other Papuan groups were not productive of much fish. The North Western Islands of New Guinea have some extensive reefs but trolling and line fishing here produced only mediocre results.

The extensive lagoons at the mouths of Sepik and Ramu rivers support a large fishery and off-shore in these regions there are considerable schools of tuna in the N-W season —a time when fishing close inshore is impossible in this area.

Southward to Milne Bay along the Mainland coast the coast is generally sharply shelving and, with the exception of an area off Buna, the fishing is poor.

Tuna shoals are less common than to the north ivest. Good line fishing reefs lie off the Gazelle Peninsula in New Britain and the south coast of New Britain

appeared to have the best beach seine fishing areas. rriHERE are a great variety of fish in A P-NG waters but the greatest part of the Fairwind’s catches com prised 20 main varieties including: Spanish mackerel, pike, job fish, trevally, various tunas, dogtooth, yellowfin, bass and bream, cod and coral trout.

A great deal of native fishing is done by natives in estuaries and lowland rivers, especially -the Sepik, where natives smoke and process prawns and fish and barter them up and down the river.

The report suggests that inland rivers should be stocked with fresh-water fish and that pond culture would also assist these natives to become fish conscious.