Anger as fishers take baby snapper

Wharf fishers are angry that officials are not responding to complaints of other anglers keeping undersized catches.

Acting manager for fisheries compliance Jacob Hore said his team received numerous complaints over the summer.

‘‘Wharf fishing is a very small part of the recreational fishing sector. But offending is offending and, if we can catch people, we will,’’ he said.

Data obtained under the Official Information Act showed more than 5200 infringement notices or court-imposed fines were issued nationally over the past three years for undersized catches.

But anglers angry at seeing wharf fishers keeping undersized fish say officials are failing to respond to the problem.

In February, Devonport resident Graeme Taylor claims he saw a man with a baby snapper on the end of his line about to throw it into a bucket ‘‘filled’’ with undersized fish.

‘‘I asked him, ‘Are you going to throw it back?’,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘But he got very threatening.’’

Taylor said he rang officials but was told that understaffing meant they could not respond to all complaints.

The OIA data showed there were currently only 93 fulltime Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) fishery officers patrolling the country’s coastal fishing spots. Most of them were in Auckland.

Hore’s advice to the public was to provide as much information as possible, as vagueness in a complaint could be the difference between officers attending a reported incident or not.

MPI offered brochures in several languages, as well as a free NZ Fishing Rules app for Apple and Android devices.