Crayfishing at Jackson Bay

My Story

DescriptionCRAYFISH
Yes, just the tails of the crayfish were kept and were exported to America. Unlike today, when they catch crayfish in a “pot,” [which is a steel rod frame box, covered in netting,] back in the late 1950s the fishing boats trawled for crayfish with nets, dragged behind the boat.

Crayfish “march” in groups across the bottom of the sea and were just scooped up in the nets.

I have on video, a copy of an 8mm movie of the fishing boats down South Westland at Jackson’s Bay pulling up a net full of crayfish, as big as a car. But then the fishermen cut the tails off the crayfish, keeping them to take back to port. The bodies were taken out to sea, away from the crayfish beds and shoveled back overboard. Such a bloody waste by today’s standards, but then the fishery had no conservation in mind, probably thought the supply of crayfish was endless.

Today boats are likely to catch them one at a time. From memory, if the boats got into the crays they could be back in Greymouth after about four weeks, but some trips were a lot longer.

Back to the fish factory where Dad was foreman and Mum worked there as well, packing those crayfish tails for America. The tails were wrapped in cellophane and a rubber band stretched over them to hold it on. Mum, along with about another half dozen women, were packing the tails and during the school holidays I often made wooden cases to pack them into. I used a nailing machine that shot about six nails at a time, not too bad for those days.
ContributorBrian McIntyre‎Date of story events1950sMap^[1]

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Location (city or town)Jackson Bay

Category Information

Category TagfishingMenuBy Decade | 1950-1959 Last edited by: Tracey Butler

By Topic | Working Life | Industry Last edited by: Tracey Butler

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