Catching the crooks

By ROBIN BAILEY

Matthew Cowan is a man with a mission. As Auckland's District Compliance Manager, Non-Commercial Fishing, he is passionate about protecting the region's seafood resources.

Cowan, who recently became the Ministry of Fisheries' first, and at this stage only, DCM in charge of recreational fishing, is determined to put heavy pressure on what he calls the "small but persistently greedy minority" that consistently ignore the fishing bag and size limits.

"Unlike the vast majority of fishers and shellfish gatherers, these few say, in effect, 'We don't care about your limits, we don't care about our fellow fishers and we don't even care about our children and grandchildren. We are going to take whatever we can, whenever we can, regardless of the effect on the resource.'

"In my view, the vast majority of us do care and we at MFish are absolutely determined to protect these resources."

A keen fisherman himself, Cowan comes to the job from a background in the marine industry, including executive roles in the commercial fishing sector. He is pleased the Government has recognised the problems being faced in the Auckland region and has given the ministry the resources to deal with them.

In the latest budget, MFish received funding for the new position Cowan fills and for a doubling of the number of fishery officers working in the recreational area. His strategy will see these officers randomly and persistently target areas where they have good reason to believe that fisheries regulations are being flouted.

"We will be mounting regular raids on known areas of offending and will crack down hard on those who refuse to stick to the rules," he says.

The strategy proved successful last month with a team capturing three people off Pakatoa. They had their legal combined daily limit of 27 snapper "on show" in a bin in the cockpit - and an estimated 100 more snapper, some as small as 20cm, hidden in a bag in the bow.

Following the trio's refusal to co-operate and an attempted assault on one of the fishery officers, the three were arrested by police when they arrived back at the Maraetai ramp and are facing a number of serious charges brought by both the police and the Ministry of Fisheries.

"This is exactly the type of behaviour we are determined to jump on," says Cowan. "This was no mum, dad and the kids mistakenly keeping a slightly undersized fish or taking one too many. The three had taken the legal daily limit of another 11 people"

Cowan and his team will also be maintaining MFish's very strong educational campaign, especially among those new to the country.

"We have no wish to be a large-scale prosecution agency," he says.

"Prosecuting offenders is actually a very inefficient use of MFish time. We would much prefer to educate fishers and shellfish gatherers about the rules and about the way the courts have interpreted those rules so that they can keep within the limits and within the law."

He says he primarily sees prosecution as a weapon against "serious poachers", those who knowingly exceed the limit with the aim of selling their catch.

"However, we are also increasingly seeing shellfish gatherers with 10 or even 20 times their daily limits and, at that level, it doesn't really matter if they are selling the excess or simply eating it all themselves - the devastating effect on the fishery is the same."

He emphasises that daily catch limits and sizes are set with two simple aims:

* to be large enough so that people can gather or catch a worthwhile feed

* to be small enough to ensure the resource remains in a healthy state for future generations.

"I think the vast majority of New Zealanders understand that and respect it. In fact, fishing and gathering shellfish is an integral part of the Kiwi lifestyle and most people want to see that continue for many generations to come.

"I want my children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy these resources in the same way I have, and I am very, very passionate about that."