Future

Harold Gatty on Future Of Pacific Tuna

SUVA, October 25.

HAROLD Gatty, whose vision and energy brought about the first organised tuna-fishing industry in the South Pacific, and who philosophi cally watched his company’s effort being wrecked on the natives’ lack of knowledge of tuna-catching, had some interesting comments to make on later and recent developments in the industry.

The fact that the Van Camp Company, of America, by using Japanese fishermen and a special technique, is getting huge quantities of tuna for the preserving works at Pago Pago, is regarded by Mr. Gatty with satisfaction —it proves that his theories and calculations (that the South Pacific carries large quanti ties of edible fish) were correct.

“The tuna of the Pacific Ocean is going to be one of the most im portant factors in the feeding of the future world,” he said, “and the most important and valuable kind of tuna is the albacore. Wherever in the world—especially in the Paci fic—the water temperature is about 64-66 degrees, the sea, from the sur face right down to 200 fathoms or more, is thick with albacore. You can get them over a very wide area —from New Zealand and the Chat hams, through the Kermadecs, for example, right up to the Equator.

“The Japanese, last August, fish ing at 16 South and 129 East (just east of the Solomons) took 2,200 tons of albacore. Few people rea lise the enormous quantities of this excellent food that are available to any people, once they acquire the knowledge of how to catch it.

“The Japanese work on the basis that they will average from 4 to 5 fish per 100 baited hooks. They select their area; starting in the early morning they put out some 20 miles of lines, carrying thousands of hooks; and they begin to pick up in the afternoon, “The Americans have found some areas around Christmas Island where the average per 100 hooks is 12 fish—that is literally a harvest of the sea.

“The thing goes down to basic economics. The Japanese put about 35 men on each small vessel. Most of the heavy work is by hand —there are few mechanical aids in putting out and hauling in those miles of lines. There is very limited accom modation for the men—not enough bunks —and they have no fixed wage. They are paid on results, rheir average pay, last season, was about 70/- Fijian (79/- Australian) per month. All fish canned in Pago Pago (an American Territory) are i

free of local tax and, being of American origin, the food enters USA without tax penalty. The en terprise we tried to found in Phi had none of those advantages.”

He thought that, if tuna-fishing flourishes in the future, it would be due to mechanisation. Two Ameri

can tuna-fishing boats, working

out of Hawaii, had each a crew of only 6 men—the little vessels were mechanised to do the work done on other boats by 35 Japanese.

Mr. Gatty believes that the Jap anese will be the first to exploit this great wealth of fish food. Before the War there were 7 million Jap fishermen—because of the crowded character of their small country ttjey Simply had to go out and get what they could out of the sea.