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The Nelson Photo News

 

6

Mechanisation of the Fishing Industry

Not so many years ago, fish was a product all but ignored as an earner of overseas exchange and one which appeared but infrequently on New Zealand tables. It is only in recent years that the full potential of the fishing industry has received recognition from Government and some sections of the industry. Today, fish canned or in the raw state is big business, and the industry is now gearing itself to meet a tremendous overseas demand. The latest move to meet this demand was taken in Nelson by Nelson Fisheries Ltd with the building of a big factory on the reclamation and the mechanisation of the factory. The result of the company's move will be a greater, more economic and faster output of processed fish for overseas and local markets. The new processes will no doubt help increase Nelson's output of fish to the stage where we might challenge Auckland as New Zealand's premier fishing port. Already we hold second place, a mere 18,000 cwt behind Auckland, and, in three years, the Nelson catch has increased five-fold - a tremendous achievement.

The pic on this page is of the company's new factory with its huge apron of concrete to the wharf's edge. On the next two pages we show something of the facilities contained within the building. The two centre stainless steel doors open into cool stores where the catches from the boats are kept until they are processed.

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A new wharf has been constructed for the company. Trawlers can now berth and have their boxes of fish winched ashore under a canopy.

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From the cool stores the fish are first put through a scaling machine, the loading of which is being carried out here by Phil Te Iringa.

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From the scaler the fish are deposited in a big stainless steel bath and taken from here automatically by conveyor. On the journey they are washed and cleaned by high pressure water jets.

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From a huge holding bin the fish are weighed out into trays and given to the filleters who strip the flesh from the bones with great dexterity. Working on this filleting benchline are Richard Lee, Phil Te Iringa, Barry Perham and Leka Tuiquere-quere.

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The filleted fish, in trays, then pass along on another conveyor belt to the weigh-in platform where the filleted fish is weighed (here by Gloria Hemi) before going to the skinning machine.

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Having been weighed, the fish is skinned by this specialist machine. The machine will skin a fillet as fast as they can be pushed through (about one per second).

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And on to the packaging department where the boxes of fish are weighed again. From here the next stop is the freezer and then overseas. Working here are Joy Stratford, Gloria Hemi, Barbara Andrews and Cathie Ramsay.