Weekend blitz on illegal fishing hauls

By NATASHA HARRIS


Ministry of Fisheries officers fined 23 people for illegal hauls during a weekend blitz in West Auckland.

About 150 cars were checked on Huia Rd near Cornwallis Beach, and six people now face court appearances for either taking more fish than allowed or taking undersized fish.

Police were also breath-testing drivers on Huia Rd. They stopped about 1500 cars, catching one drink-driver.

Fisheries officer Sonia Hoyes said the extent of the law-breaking - and especially the number of people taking undersized paua - was shocking.

"I'm disappointed, as people are depleting the paua fisheries out here," Miss Hoyes said.

"People feel there's a reasonable chance they'll get away with it but while you may get away with it once or twice we'll get you in the end."

Most of the illegal hauls found at the weekend were undersized paua, angering officers who said constant harvesting of this sort meant they had not seen legal-sized paua taken in the area for about five years.

Miss Hoyes said the worst finding over the weekend was an Asian couple who had more than three times the legal limit of pipis and twice the legal limit of cockles. They received a $1500 fine.

In another case, officers found baby mussels and 12cm snapper. The legal size for snapper is 27cm.

The majority of people who had been caught were mostly co-operative, Miss Hoyes said.

But police had to calm down a man who objected to his car being searched. He ended up getting a $250 fine for taking two undersized fish.

This is the second year that police and fisheries have worked together to crack down on illegal fishing and shellfish-gathering.

* A surveillance operation in Wellington has netted four poachers with 800 undersize paua destined for overseas black markets.

Twelve Fisheries Ministry officers stopped the men - all from the same extended family - at Moa Pt, near Wellington Airport.

The ministry said the haul, worth at least $20,000, would have been smuggled to Asia.

Catch limits

* Shellfish (daily limit per person in Auckland/Coromandel): 10 paua (ordinary and yellow foot), 20 scallop, 25 green-lipped mussels, 50 cockles, kina, pipi, tuatua and dredged oysters, 100 rock and pacific oysters.

* Nine snapper per person, minimum 27cm long.