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The Nelson Photo News

 

34

Eels for Export

Eels, those long, black, slippery fish which are the bane of acclimatisation societies throughout New Zealand, and a fish that most people abhor, are likely to become another export earner for this country. At Brooklyn, just outside Motueka, three men have formed a company known as Kaituna Products, to process eels. The company has been experimenting with the fish for nearly 18 months now, and it knows it has an assured market in Europe for one variety of eel, the short-finned eel. Unfortunately, this species, peculiar to Australia and New Zealand, is not available in the same quantities as the long-finned eel, a species which is not popular in Europe because of its appearance. And therein lies the greatest problem confronting this infant company. It can obtain large quantities of the long-finned eel, but it has to find a market for them. This variety can be processed and canned (and the product is delicious, our taste buds can vouch for that), but the high cost of the processing and marketing structures is ham-stringing the marketing of the product at the moment.

The potential is tremendous. A can of eel, processed in the Nelson district, was taken to Australia as a sample. That one can brought forth orders for 60,000 more. But the company is in no position to fulfil any such orders until a cheaper processing system is found.

The three men behind the scheme are fishermen Peter Talley, Peter Crapper and Bruce Murphy (the acknowledged expert on eels). Bruce has made an intensive study of the fish over the last 20 years for he realised their potential as a food. At Brooklyn, the company has built six big settling tanks to hold the fish caught in streams throughout the province. These are kept in running water for about eight days, during which they live on their own body fats. The running water cleanses them internally and when ready for processing are entirely free of that muddy smell and taste one usually associates with eels. At the moment, the only eels being marketed are the short-finned variety. These are processed and shipped to Europe whole. The company is prepared to pay 8c a 1b for the short-finned variety. These are usually found in lagoons and streams within about 8 miles of the coastline.

Our pix show the settling tanks (above), a shortfinned and long-finned eel (on the left), at right, and some of the eels in one of the settling tanks (bottom right).

35

In the last few weeks, politicians all over New Zealand have been hammering home their party's objectives, and figuring largely in these has been our greater export potential. Well, here's a case where a Government can help a firm get established so that it can help boost the country's export earnings.

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Mary and Bruce Murphy. Incidentally, ever hear of Sam Cash? The hero in Barry Crump's collection of stories called "Sam Cash"? These stories were modelled on the exploits of Bruce. And his wife, Mary, is in it too. A handy man with a power saw:

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Eels caught are brought in tanks to the settling ponds, loaded by chute directly into an unloading box. When filled, this can be slid along rails to the tank to be filled, and unloaded (right). With this system the eels are not damaged in transit.

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Bruce sets his eel trap in a stream close to home. He makes his own traps of fine chain mesh to minimise damage to the fish (below).