Tasmanian Fisheries History

You are viewing an archived copy of this website captured Mon Jan 07 15:30:44 AEDT 2013 Tasmanian Fisheries 1880-1990 The following essay written in 1994 summarizes the linked files that cover nine periods up to 1990. DOES BETTER BAIT LAND MORE FISH? Fisheries Administration, Research and Development in Tasmania 1880-1990 ANTHONY J HARRISON 1994 Island communities look outward to the sea with a mixture of awe and hope. The cause of their isolation also offers protection and the prospect of wealth. Tasmanians accept without conscious thought that the sea is "full of fish". Successful catches by neighbours and friends on weekend or holidays, the renowned profitability of abalone diving combined with regular media stories on crayfish and scallop successes reinforce this belief. Visits by large foreign fishing vessels sustain another tenet that is as old as white settlement - our waters are still to yield new riches. Faith in fisheries development as the answer to economic growth in Tasmania has been a recurrent theme in the culture of the state. The Derwent estuary and adjacent waters provided a valuable supplement to the diet of the first settlers. A large catch of jack mackerel in Sullivans Cove helped to save the pioneers when Collins moved the camp from Risdon Cove. Crayfish, "plentiful and tasty", oysters, trumpeter and cod were readily available in Hobartown in the first quarter of the last century as evidenced in Knopwood and Boyes diaries etc. Whaling and sealing constituted the first important industry for Van Diemans Land. Initially the bays and coastal waters including Bass Strait produced large quantities of the fur seal and several species of whales. Later the southern ocean and Macquarie Island provided the product and Hobart became a major distant water fishing port. In 1837 fisheries contributed £135,000 to the economy - mostly from whaling when the colony had a population between a half and two thirds that of NSW. The reminders of this history can be seen in the architecture around Sullivans Cove particularly Salamanca Place and Battery Point. The economic contributions made by these fisheries are more difficult to see today but was crucial to the viability of the colony. Less well known is the contribution of the oyster industry to the colonial economy. The local (native or mud) oyster Ostrea angasi was found in abundance in places such as Pipe Clay Lagoon, Cloudy Bay, Ralphs Bay, Great Oyster Bay and Port Esperance. The fame of this shellfish soon spread to Sydney and by the 1860's 20 million oysters worth £90,000 were produced in that year, most being exported and this was the colony's most valuable primary industry. Unregulated harvesting prompted legislative action in 1853 - "The Act for the improvement and Regulation of the Oyster fisheries in Van Diemans Land". But these attempts failed resulting in the loss of a valuable industry and calls to investigate oyster culture (Calder Oyster Culture 1868). The substantial inland waterways of Van Dieman's Land were found to contain limited fish of table quality. Nevertheless fishing in rivers and lakes was sufficiently intensive to require legislation to protect native fish (especially mullet and "herring") within 8 years of the establishment of responsible government. An Act for the Preservation of Fish in the Rivers of This Colony became law in 1859. Almost twenty years earlier some of leading citizens formed a group () that was to become the Royal Society of Tasmania and initiated the first of a long series of discussions on fisheries development projects. Memories of Scottish and Irish salmon prompted a scheme to acclimatise the species 12,000 miles and a hemisphere away from its natural environment. The objective was to produce a commercial fishery and a source of food. Whilst the hoped for "salmon run" failed to eventuate brown trout, (a contemporary introduction), flourished. Although more than a century was to elapse before these introduced fish were legally sold for profit, the direct descendant of the group that began the development became one of the world's longest serving and successful guardians of recreational fishing. The story of this project was best recorded by Morton Allport and P.S.Seager (1889) leading contemporary figures and Nicholls (1875), and by later authors such as Lynch (1970). By 1880 a pattern that was to be regularly repeated for a century was already in evidence - The productivity of the adjacent sea combined with individual initiative to satisfy a market opportunity. This "natural" fishing industry provided wealth, employment and stimulated general economic development. But individuals or pressure groups urge government intervention and support to produce "something better". A government decision to invest in fisheries is accompanied by a new administrative structure. Thus for example although whales (particularly whale oil), fur seals and oysters were the basis of important industries and capable of sustained productivity if prudently and carefully managed. (Whaling contributed £2.25 million to the Tasmanian economy between 1803 and 1870.) Nevertheless scarce resources of skill and money, and government interest were applied to acclimatize salmon, an "artificial" developmental project of doubtful commercial potential. [Although the best available scientific skills were used together with extreme care and considerable money we now know that to establish a self-sustaining salmon run in the Southern Hemisphere is very difficult. Ironically the latest intervention by the Tasmanian Government in fisheries development is to create a commercial salmon industry using the same species but by containing them in cages in farms rather than allowing the fish to run free. In 1987 the first salmon grown in Tasmanian waters were sold - 115 years after the first live specimens arrived in Hobart.] Unmanaged fisheries rapidly decline and by 1882 a Royal Commission inquiring into Tasmanian Fisheries found major neglect had lead to the destruction of two major industries. The evidence collected described in considerable detail fishing in the colony to that time. R.H.Johnston, one of the Commissioners, produced a comprehensive "Catalogue of Tasmanian Fishes " including information on their biology and behaviour. The Commission recommended placing the management of fisheries under professional guidance, that research commence and the oyster fishery be revived. Australian fisheries were to benefit immeasurably from the consequential appointment of William Saville-Kent as Chief Inspector and Superintendent of Fisheries in 1884. By 1888 he had introduced new fishing techniques and established a substantial research facility at Battery Point in Hobart where he maintained and cultured a range of species including oysters, grayling, real trumpeter as well as trout. He proposed to export cultured trumpeter to restock the waters off the coast of Devon and to import European species such as the true lobster. The story of his appointment, innovations, and resignation after conflict with the Salmon Commissioners is a fascinating episode in public administration. After the departure of Saville-Kent to take up fisheries positions in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia the government again ignored fisheries management and development leaving it to an unfunded part-time board of Commissioners. In 1906 the new Commonwealth Government decided to seek the riches of fisheries development by acquiring a research trawler, paying a bounty on locally canned fish and appointing a Commonwealth Director of Fisheries. A year later they the held the first national Fisheries Conference and to obtain broad support for their policy. This Conference lead to the appointment of H.V.Dannevig as Director and the purchase of the research vessel Endeavour. Both were lost in December 1914 off the west coast of Tasmania whilst engaged in a program of surveying potential trawling grounds. The vessel did valuable work and stimulated the development of the NSW fishing industry but the taste was enough to satisfy the Commonwealth appetite for fisheries development for forty years. Dissatisfaction by some fishermen with the policies of the Fisheries Commissioners particularly related to the use of crayfish pots prompted the Tasmanian House of Assembly to establish a Select Committee in 1913 under the chairmanship of J A Lyons to investigate "Deep Sea Fisheries". The Report - "Strongly recommended that a new government department be established ... it cannot be expected that the body of gentlemen who are mostly anglers that in no way connected with fishing can successfully control the fisheries of the State". Three years later T T Flynn, the first Professor of Biology at the University of Tasmania was appointed Royal Commissioner to examine "Tasmanian Fisheries" and he strongly supported the Lyons Report. Premier Braddon had withdrawn financial support in 1894 and the Government of Tasmania provided no funds for fisheries for more than 35 years. The Commissioners - the lineal successors to the promoters of salmon acclimatisation, operated as best they could with whatever funds could be extracted from reluctant commercial fishermen. Financial difficulties, in part due to the war, prolonged the life of the Commissioners until further agitation for change between 1920 and 1925 and the death of P S Seager lead to a restructuring in 1925. A new Fisheries Act established the Sea Fisheries Board with a mandate to both manage and initiate development. A series of major private ventures began in 1911 with a proposal initiated by the Tasmanian Agent-General in London with the support of Henry Jones but failed to raise sufficient finance. The Tasmanian Fisheries Development Co Pty Ltd the brainchild of TT Flynn and Robert Nettlefold was promoted in 1924 and backed by the State Development Board. The Board commissioned a feasibility study by Dr G.F.Read who recommended St Helens as the centre of the scheme. Lyons vigorously supported the project and introduced the Fisheries Encouragement Bill in 1925 to grant it concessions and protection in the northeast.

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