Battle against paua poachers going high tech

The battle against paua poachers is going high tech.

The fishing industry and the Government say the poached paua haul of up to 1000 tonnes a year is not sustainable and could lead to more closed areas and a reduction in the legal catch of 1057 tonnes a year.

Poachers use night diving, two-way radios and spotter scouts to get the paua out of the water, and tourists, boat drops and other smuggling methods to get it out of the country.

The Fisheries Ministry is now using new state-of-the-art surveillance equipment to catch poachers.

And New Zealand Paua Management Company chief executive Jeremy Cooper says a new way of detecting paua as it is taken from the country is being developed.

"We've already used forensic geology to prove where particular paua come from, and now we're working on a machine to identify paua hidden in packages and luggage," he said.

To counter the problem of paua smuggled in luggage and in shipping containers, his company was working with a firm to develop technology that could sniff out contraband.

He hoped the new equipment would be scanning all luggage leaving New Zealand by 2005.

"If illegally caught paua cannot get out of the country, the poaching rings that are decimating our resource will struggle to continue," Mr Cooper said.

- NZPA