DoC wants public to dob in illegal fishing guides

The Department of Conservation says it wants information on illegal fishing guides on the West Coast.

Buller community relations programme manager John Green said Department of Conservation rangers could not patrol the region's large backcountry all the time to ensure guides complied with the rules.

The department needed information from the public, he said.

Mr Green was responding to a Reefton fishing guide's claim that foreigners were providing fishing tours on New Zealand rivers without DoC concessions.

Illegal operators were difficult to catch because many operators claimed they were transporting people to areas to fish on their own, Mr Green said.

But DoC responded to reports and kept an eye on the internet for unauthorised activities.

Murchison fishing guide Ron McKay said illegal guides should be prosecuted and deported without hesitation. He said he knew of such operators in Murchison.

"The biggest problem is actually proving it - they can just say they are guiding with a friend and then get paid in the States [US] so there's no money transacted here.

"The only way to get them is to set them up."

Anyone caught guiding on DoC land without a concession faces prosecution.

- NZPA