Man pleads guilty in illegal crayfish case

A former Rotorua man has admitted his involvement in an illegal commercial freshwater crayfish operation that yielded him nearly $30,000 over seven months.

Alfred Whakaturia Morehu, a 43-year-old manager who now lives in Australia, pleaded guilty in Rotorua District Court this week to seven charges of illegally selling koura, or freshwater crayfish.

It is believed to be the first prosecution of its kind in New Zealand.

His company, Mataura Native Ltd, and business partner, Justin Haronga Te Kowhai, 34, also appeared in court facing the same charges but their matters have been adjourned until June 9.

Morehu was involved in harvesting koura from Lake Rotoma and selling at least 706kg of it at $40 a bag between March and September last year.

The koura were sold to a distributor for at least $28,000, who onsold the koura to a wide client base including hotels and restaurants throughout New Zealand.

The illegal operation came to the notice of the Department of Conservation in August last year after it got information about the availability of koura at various restaurants.

The koura had been harvested from Lake Rotoma, between Rotorua and Whakatane, by employees of Mataura Native Ltd and sold via the distributor for $55 a kg.

When interviewed by the fisheries officers, Morehu admitted being a founder of Mataura Native Ltd and said he was a director, even though he is not listed as such with the Companies Office.

Koura may legally be gathered for personal consumption up to a limit of 50 fish a day. However, the selling, trading or possession of koura for the purposes of sale or trade is an offence under the regulations.

Morehu said he was not involved in harvesting and his primary function was filing orders and distributing the packaged koura to clients.

Department of Conservation lawyer Mike Bodie said at no time had the department or Ministry of Fisheries given authority to anyone to commercially harvest koura. The Te Arawa Maori Trust Board had also not given any such approval.

At least 14,000 koura are estimated to have been harvested and sold during the seven months.

Outside the courtroom, Mr Bodie said the restaurants had purchased the fish from an Auckland distributor that had been assured the koura had been harvested legally.

Restaurant Association of New Zealand chief executive officer Alistar Rowe said most reputable restaurants bought from distributors they could trust that had already ensured their suppliers were legitimate.

Judge Rota remanded Morehu to reappear for sentencing on June 22.

- nzpa