Paua poachers lose vehicle

THE EVIDENCE: The paua that saw four men convicted in the Kaitaia District Court last week.

Four men, three of them local, lost their mate's four-wheel-drive vehicle and were fined a total of $8000 after they admitted possession of more paua than their customary permit allowed.

Jared Ngawhika (32, sickness beneficiary Kaitaia), Ryan Ngawhika (26, unemployed Kaitaia), Zane Busby (35, unemployed Ahipara) and Morgan Clarken (26, unemployed, Pukekohe) admitted possessing excess and undersized paua when they appeared before Judge John McDonald in the Kaitaia District Court last week.

Each defendant was convicted and fined $1500 on the first charge and $500 on the second, and were ordered to pay court costs of $260. The Jeep Cherokee they had borrowed from a friend to go diving was forfeited to the Crown. The vehicle had an estimated value of $500.

The court heard that ministry compliance officers stopped the defendants, who had been gathering paua at Tauroa (Reef Point), at Shipwreck Bay on February 3.

They had a customary permit, issued by Tame Kahiti Murray on behalf of the Ahipara Maori Committee, to gather 60 paua, with no size limit, for an unveiling at Ahipara on April 4.

A total of 175 paua were found in the vehicle. Only two of them were of a legal size, while two more were unmeasurable.

Clarken and Ryan Ngawhika told the officers they knew the minimum legal size and the permitted daily limit (10 per person), but Busby said he did not. Jared Ngawhika said he knew the legal size limit.

None of the four gave a reason for having more paua than allowed by the permit, and none had appeared before the court on fisheries matters before.

The ministry encourages people to report any suspicious fishing activity to 0800 4 POACHER (0800 476-224). All calls are confidential.