Crackdown on fish poachers

By ANNE BESTON

Recreational fishers and shellfish gatherers who flout the law are being targeted in a campaign to stop seafood pillaging around Auckland's coast.

The Ministry of Fisheries has created a new position, district compliance manager, for the Auckland region and bought high-tech camera gear to catch poachers.

Fisheries officer numbers have been doubled, up to nine, and more voluntary honorary fisheries officers will be on patrol.

Mathew Cowan, the new district compliance manager, said the extra surveillance was made possible by increased Government funding to deal with illegal recreational fishing.

Areas known to be favoured by poachers would be hit hardest.

"We have no wish to be a large-scale prosecution agency but we will mount regular raids in areas where people are known to be flouting the rules," he said.

A sizeable minority of people did not understand or respect daily catch limits and did not have "any sort of conservation ethic whatsoever".

These "selfish few" were making it difficult to ensure long-term shellfish harvesting and recreational fishing would be sustainable, he said.

The three surveillance cameras are designed to catch poachers on and off the water.

One, a submersible, can be used in water up to 50m deep to spy on things like crayfish pots.

Another is infrared, for spotting illegal activity after dark, and the third, a digital zoom camera, means fisheries officers can watch poachers from a distance.

"We will be able to observe black market activity without putting staff in danger," said senior fisheries investigator Harry Hilditch.

"This equipment saves us having to have a fisheries officer hiding in a gorse bush for 24 hours, which is what we used to do."

Mr Cowan said under-sized fish and bag-limit breaches had resulted in a number of prosecutions recently. Most of them earned fines of about $1000 plus costs.

The ministry says an infringement notice system, started in 2001, has dramatically cut fish confiscation rates at boat ramps.

Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/marine