Fisheries officers kept busy on land and sea over Auckland Anniversary weekend
February 2 2017

Ministry for Primary Industries fisheries officers detected close to 50 fisheries offences during vessel and land-based patrols in the days leading up to and including Auckland Anniversary.

MPI’s Team Manager for the Mid Central North Island, Mike Simmons, says that from January 25th to 30th, fisheries officers and honorary fisheries officers conducted patrols in the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty areas, where a large number of fisheries-related offences by recreational fishers was uncovered.

“We conducted vessel patrols covering both the east and western side of the Coromandel peninsula. The inspections that were carried out at sea resulted in the detection of 22 offences including undersized kingfish, excess take of scallops, undersized scallops and excess take of snapper.

“A large number of land-based patrols between Waihi and Thornton kept officers very busy with two prosecutions pending as a result, one for the sale of non-commercially caught paua and the other for excess take of crab.

“In addition, we identified 23 fisheries offences relating to excess take of scallops and undersized snapper at checkpoints at Te Mata on the Coromandel and in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

“Over the five days, several hundred inspections were carried out with a total of 47 fisheries offences detected.

“It is very disappointing that people continue to take undersized and excess fish.

“Size and bag limits are in place to ensure sustainability of the fishery for all New Zealanders.

“Targeted patrolling by our officers will continue throughout the rest of the summer. People need to remember that infringements, prosecutions and seizure of boats and equipment used in fishery-related offences are all tools available to us to deal with those who choose to flout the law.

“There’s no excuse for this sort of offending.”

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