Fined for abuse of customary fishing

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A Mahia man authorised to issue customary fishing permits for the peninsula has been fined $750 for enabling two known poachers to take paua.

He was refused a discharge without conviction at an earlier hearing.

Morehu Shane Cooper, 54, pleaded guilty to breaching a fishery regulation by inciting unpermitted fishing. Other charges were withdrawn in November, 2017.

Cooper, a kaitiaki (appointed voluntary fisheries guardian) of 10 years, issued permits in December 2016 to a couple he knew were “stood down” from customary fishing. They used them to harvest 160 paua.

Cooper wrongly informed the pair they could fish using permits issued in the name of someone fishing with them.

The pair were charged with being in possession of paua in contravention to the Fisheries Act but were found not guilty in separate proceedings to Cooper.

Judge Powell, who heard the case in Wairoa District Court, ruled they could expect to rely on what Cooper told them and had a defence of officially-induced error.

Cooper was sentenced in Gisborne District Court by Judge Warren Cathcart, who dealt with the earlier application for a discharge without conviction.

Cooper applied on the basis he had no previous convictions and was otherwise of good character.

He was a resident of Mahia for 15 years and had given numerous hours service as a kaitiaki. He is also a trustee of the Apa Apa A-Rangi Marae and is its representative on the Rongomaiwahine Iwi Trust and the Mahia Maori Committee.

Counsel Elliott Lynch submitted Cooper’s reputation would be damaged by the conviction. He could lose his kaitiaki role and some of his other roles.

He was the only one of six kaitiaki for the peninsula who lived there. People wanting to fish would be disadvantaged if they had to get permits from further afield.

The gravity of the offending was low, as all paua taken by the couple were returned live to the sea.

Judge Cathcart said the paua was recovered due only to the intervention of fisheries officers. Even low-level fisheries offenders could not expect wholesale discharges without conviction. Each case must be considered in its own context.

Abuse of this hard-won customary fishing regime, especially by those entrusted with its guardianship, damaged the interests of all Maori, the judge said.

The test for discharges without conviction focused on the risks and consequences of conviction for the applicant – not indeterminant third parties.

While Cooper was at risk of losing his kaitiaki role, that decision was ultimately for the Mahia Maori Committee.