Automatic forfeiture of the company’s vessel took place at the time the conviction was entered through the court. Its permanent forfeiture would be decided through the Civil Court jurisdiction, Judge Brandts-Giesen said.
McManaway was also fined $12,000.
The summary of facts details how McManaway had skippered the San Nicholas fishing boat to Southern Fiordland in February 2020.
He had recorded 60m of net had been used when in fact 1440m of net was used in an area where commercial bulk fishing methods were prohibited or restricted.
The maximum length of commercial nets allowed to be used in the area is 1000m.
When interviewed, he said he was unaware of the restrictions and had likely set more than 2500m of net at any one time during the previous 10 years.
On February 4, 2020, McManaway recorded he had caught butterfish and blue moki only.
A Fisheries observer recorded as well as the two species, blue cod, rock lobster, tarakihi, trumpeter, seven-gilled shark, banded wrasse, copper moki and Antarctic rock cod had also been caught.
The company also failed to accurately account for dead pāua it had disposed of.
At an earlier court appearance, Judge Brandts-Giesen said nine to 10 pāua holding pots were uplifted of which the Ministry for Primary Industries knew nothing.
“Three hundred kilograms of dead pāua were discarded but reported only retrospectively after a Ministry of Primary Industries investigation had begun.”
The company received $5200 from the sale of fish illegally harvested although it is estimated the market value was $22,000.
“Pāua worth between $20,000 and $50,000 was sold and the market value of that pāua was greater than $36,000.”
Court documents say Cando Fishing has had a number of previous convictions. Earlier this year, Cando Fishing was fined $3750 for failing to provide a sales invoice for $6000 of pāua in 2018. There was also similar offending by the company in 2014 and 2015.
Judge Brandts-Giesen said at sentencing that Cando Fishing had started 40 years ago with zero assets and grown to a company that now had four fishing vessels.
While it had no quota, the company instead had a kilogram-based allowance or allocation.
A total ban on all fishing would impact the employees and the economy of Southland.
“The range of ages is from 16 to 80-year-olds employed, and all have commitments to families, mortgages and saving for homes and generally to get ahead in life themselves,” Judge Brandts-Giesen said.
The trip McManaway made to Fiordland was not for monetary gain but was instead a trip on which he had taken a prospective buyer to show him how the vessel operated.
Judge Brandts-Giesen placed a three-year prohibition on the company from; holding a pāua fishing permit, engaging in fishing or any activity associated with the taking of pāua; prohibited deriving any income from activities associated with the taking of pāua.
He did not put any restrictions on any other part of the fishing Cando undertook.
If both the ministry and counsel could not reach an agreement on reimbursement of prosecution costs, the matter was to be brought back before the court, he said.
