Used falsified permits to poach crayfish worth $300,000

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

A man sentenced this week for possessing 60 unlawfully taken crayfish was just a minor player in a much bigger black market racket discovered during a sting on poaching at Mahia Peninsula.

Tei Nohotima, 50, was fined $1500 on Monday in Gisborne District Court. However, his part in the overall offending paled in comparison with the major role played by his cousin John Nohotima — a 61-year-old sickness beneficiary from Wairoa who made nearly $68,690 by catching and selling more than 4600 crayfish.

Nohotima gathered the crayfish under falsified customary permits.

Caught in August 2021, after a Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) operation identified him and about 10 other people, Nohotima admitted knowing what he’d done was wrong and said he wanted to “apologise to my people”.

He pleaded guilty last month to obtaining a benefit by knowingly selling the crayfish in breach of the Fisheries Act 1996 and was to have been sentenced today in Wairoa District Court. However, matters in that court were adjourned this week due to the bad weather.  A new sentencing date is yet to be set.

Between September 1, 2020, and August 1, 2021, Nohotima used his boat and 16 craypots multiple times to gather 4664 crayfish, which had a commercial value of nearly $300,000.

The East Coast CRA3 fishing zone, from which the crayfish were taken, was already under considerable pressure from poaching, authorities estimating about 81,000kg of crayfish are illegally taken from it each year.

Nohotima had been issued 72 customary fishing permits between December 28, 2018 and July 21, 2021, many of which he used to instigate his offending and got by giving false information to the kaitiaki (guardian) who issued them.

The permits allow customary fishers to gather seafood over and above the amateur fishing regulations for the purpose of a hui or tangi. A permit is no longer valid once the number of authorised fish are caught or when the harvesting period has ceased. It is illegal to sell seafood taken recreationally or under a customary permit.

Receiving orders by text message, Nohotima distributed the crayfish to buyers in Auckland, Kawerau, Tauranga, Gisborne, Wairoa and Napier. Buyers collected their lot from his Wairoa house, or he would make deliveries using one of his vehicles.

His main customer was the Paul family from Kawerau. He and the head of that family Martin Paul worked with an intermediary to supply the crayfish for on-selling in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Paul would provide Nohotima with fake information to use in getting permits.

Most of the events referred to never took place and people had no idea their marae or facilities were being used in such a way.

Nohotima would sell the crayfish for $15 each or $25 for larger ones. Some sales to older community members were for $10.

Crayfish were on-sold by the Pauls for $30 each. Members of that whānau travelled to Wairoa 46 times to collect the supply.

Phone data collected by the MPI revealed Nohotima describing his activity as a koura business and saying he “fishes best when there’s money in the bank”.

Caught and questioned in August 2021, he admitted what he had done was illegal.

He said he had an “inkling” the Paul family were on-selling the crayfish.

Any money he got was “koha” to cover his vessel operating and maintenance costs. He channelled the money through his daughter’s bank account so the Ministry for Social Development wouldn’t see it in his own account where he received his benefit payments.

He finished the interview by saying he wanted to “apologise to all my people”.

Nohotima faces up to five years imprisonment or a fine of up to $250,000, along with forfeiture of items he used in the offending, including two cellphones, two utility vehicles, a van, cray pots, six-metre boat and its tandem axle trailer, outboard motor, fish tracking device, and GPS.