DOC cracks down on illegal whitebaiters

File photo / Geoff Sloan

A Department of Conservation crackdown on illegal whitebait fishing in South Westland last season has resulted in fishermen from around the South Island losing their nets and paying fines.

DOC prosecutor Louise Tumai brought charges against nine people in the Whataroa District Court yesterday.

The whitebaiters had failed to meet requirements such as staying within 10m of the net, and using nets not exceeding more than one-third of the channel width.

Judge Brian Callaghan said that behaviour endangered the whitebait population and was "not fair to other whitebait fishermen" All defendants admitted the charges.

William Rodney Crawford, from Cromwell, was fined $700 for using fishing gear that exceeded more than a third the width of the channel.

He said the river had dropped to low tide and he forgot to raise his net. He was "a bit gullible" and thought he could fish from bank to bank. For using screens otherwise than from the water's edge, Barbara Helen Mee and Ross Foster were both fined; Mee also had to forfeit her equipment.

Murray Springer, from Greymouth, was fined $650 and had to forfeit his gear for using screens longer than 3m otherwise than from a licensed structure.

Molly Silbery, from Haast, was charged with catching whitebait on August 31 a month before the opening of the 2011 fishing season. Her fine was reduced to $500 because she was on the widow's benefit, but she was unable to get her net back because of previous offences.

Grant Neville Brewer, Malcolm Stanley McDonald, Chris Jukes and Alan Peter Blair were each fined $500 for failing to remain within 10m of their nets. Blair had to forfeit his net.