Fishing boat crew fined for plundering paua
Crew members of an overseas merchant ship have been fined $1000 each for plundering paua stocks while berthed in Bluff.
The Ministry for Primary Industries said it was at least the sixth occasion in the past five years that overseas crew from merchant ships had been caught breaking fishing rules during a stopover in Bluff.
This was despite the ministry providing crew members with the rules around the legal take and size limit of shellfish.
Ministry spokesman Garreth Jay said the most recent incident in November involved four crew members who were caught near Ocean Beach at Bluff with a total of 91 black foot paua, 82 of which were undersized, and 42 yellow foot paua, of which 26 were undersized.
They also took many more paua than the legal limit – 51 excess black foot paua and two excess yellow foot paua.
Many of the undersized were well below the minimum legal size of 125mm for black foot paua and 80mm for yellow foot paua. ‘‘Several were little more than half the minimum size allowed [and] none of the crew had any sort of measuring tool with them,’’ Jay said.
The four crew caught near Ocean Beach each received fines of $1000 for possession of excess and undersized shellfish.
The ministry staff seized the entire catch and returned all the paua to the water.
Earlier in the week, two other crew members from the same boat, including the captain, had received warning notices for having taken undersized paua.
They had also been provided pamphlets and paua gauges and told to ensure the crew knew the rules before fishing while in New Zealand waters. ‘‘It was extremely disappointing that the message didn’t seem to have gotten through to others on the vessel,’’ Jay said.
He did not know the name of the ship in question.
Paua stocks in Bluff were reasonable but if people continued to plunder the stocks it could do damage, he said.
The ministry was especially concerned at the number of undersized paua taken.
Paua took three to five years to grow to the 125mm limit, he said.
Bluff Community Board chairman Ray Fife said locals had made him aware that overseas crew members were exceeding shellfish limits and catching undersized paua while staying in the port town. ‘‘It’s a concern and it’s been raised by different people in Bluff.’’
‘‘They [overseas crew] know the rules, they are told about them when they come into New Zealand waters,’’ Fife said. ‘‘I believe they should be held accountable, everyone should be.’’
The limit of 10 paua per person was more than enough to feed a family, he said.