Fish 'dumped' into southern seas

A fishing boat skipper allegedly ordered hundreds of tonnes of fish dumped overboard in the Southern Ocean at night because the boat's meal plant could not process the huge catch.

Former factory manager Ross William McCoy told the Nelson District Court yesterday the fish and offal was dumped at night when there was less chance of being caught.

McCoy and first mate James Geoffrey Alford earlier pleaded guilty to 15 charges of dumping up to 311 tonnes of southern blue whiting in the Southern Ocean during a two-and-a-half-week voyage during September and October 2004 and were each fined $20,000.

Yesterday was the first day of the defended hearing for the vessel's skipper, whose name has been suppressed by Judge John Walker. The identity of the company involved has also been suppressed.

To questioning from Ministry of Fisheries counsel Chris Lange, McCoy said massive catches of up to 60 tonnes caused chaos in the processing factory and jammed the meal plant, which was not operating to capacity.

He had told the skipper and the first mate the excess fish could not be processed before it went off, the morning after a net containing about 60 tonnes of fish was hauled on board.

But instead of the vessel stopping fishing, he was told by the skipper to discard the old fish and offal overboard, he said.

Unsuitable whole fish were hosed into the bilge pumps from where they were discarded during the day.

The dumping went on for about three or four days. However, it stopped on the skipper's orders when an observing New Zealand Air Force Orion flew overhead, McCoy said.

The problem had lain with the vessel's fishmeal plant, which could not keep up with the flow of fish.

It was the vessel's first voyage after southern blue whiting and the plant was not working to capacity, he said.

He, Alford and the skipper had denied the charges when initially interviewed by the Ministry of Fisheries, but McCoy said he later recanted because he wanted "peace of mind".

However, defence counsel Gary Barkle claimed Alford and McCoy planned to shovel the fish dumping charges onto the skipper after the investigation started.

He said the pair carried out the dumping without the skipper's knowledge and the skipper did not tell McCoy to stop dumping while the Orion flew overhead, Barkle said.

Alford was annoyed the skipper had been appointed over his head for the trip and McCoy had been involved in illegal dumping before, but had never been caught, Barkle claimed.

Barkle said McCoy's recording of the quantities of fish processed were inaccurate and "not worth the paper they are written on".

The hearing is to continue on November 15.

- © Fairfax NZ News