Fisherman’s jinxed day

Serious fine for breaching marine park zone

A MAN who wet his lines within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park did not escape conviction when he appeared in Cairns Magistrates Court, even though he’d had a jinxed fishing day.

And his day only got worse. Troy Christopher Heidt pleaded guilty to fishing without a permit on December 11, 2021, in zone 161055 of the Marine Park near Green Island.

The court heard that Fisheries Patrol and Queensland Water Police were conducting a routine patrol when they saw a vessel within the boundary of the Marine Park.

The officers drew up next to the vessel and saw the man had a fishing line and two handlines. His vessel was 882m inside the nearest boundary of the national park zone.

Heidt participated in an interview and freely admitted he was fishing there, and using his GPS thought he was outside the zone.

Mr Heidt represented himself and told the court he was “exactly 100 per cent guilty as charged”.

“I was trying to calculate two pieces of technology to talk to each other.

“I’m very fish orientated, I live and breathe it,” he told the court as he revealed a fishing tattoo on his forearm.

“It was a very unfortunate circumstance and the fault’s on me.”

He told the court he had a family of five to support, and previously had been employed in aged care. Owing to Covid, the company he worked for had collapsed owing him and other staff unpaid wages.

On January 21, 2022, the authority issued him an infringement notice for $2220, but that notice was returned to sender.

He was contacted and he requested the infringement notice be emailed to him, which was done, and then in April he requested he pay the fine in instalments. He was given to September 30 to pay and undertook to pay through BPAY, but as of December 9 the notice was still unpaid.

Prosecutor Trent Denman told the court Mr Heidt had co-operated fully with authorities, participated in interviews and made admissions, but he had failed to pay even after being granted an extension.

The Crown characterised it as “serious offending”.

“The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is the largest marine park in the world, and enforcement of legislation is expensive and time consuming. Offending by recreational fishermen is difficult to detect,” he told the court.

Magistrate Susan Warrington acknowledged he had not caught any fish and had only been in the vicinity for 20 minutes, and she also acknowledged it had not been an easy time for him and his family.

She said she was satisfied a fine was appropriate, and she upheld the fine of $2220 and ordered he pay court costs of $107. A conviction was recorded.