New Discoveries In Pacific Fishing

Mr. Hubertus Van Pel, Fish

eries Officer of the South Pacific Commission, has re turned to SPC Headquarters in Noumea. He brought back from Dutch New Guinea the startling news of the discovery of sharks and sawfish in Lake Sentani, a freshwater lake 20 miles in from the coast and about 500 feet above sea-level.

Specimens of these freshwater sharks have been sent to Holland for examination.

In Tonga, last year, Mr. van Pel experimented with trolling, using a wooden depth-kite about 2 ft by 1 ft in size. This gave a catch fifteen times larger than that obtained by

surface fishing in the same locality.

Mr. Van Pel said one sawfish was more than 10 feet long.

“The only explanation the Dutch scientists could give was that the lake, thousands of years ago, was fed from the sea at sea level,” he said. “Then a volcano eruption took the lake 500 feet up when mountains rose out of the sea. The change from salt to fresh water was so gradual that the sharks and other habitual sea fish became acclim atised.”

If Mr. John Hagen, of Noumea, was in Sydney in February, completing arrangements under which passeng ers will be carried on his ship, Neo Hebrides 11, on its run between Syd ney and the West Pacific Islands.

Mr. van Pel with the crew of the fish ing-vessel “De Goede Hoope”, and a good catch.