Scale of paua poaching shocks

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ILLEGAL HAUL: Ministry of Fisheries honorary fishery officer Grant Gibson, left, and fishery officer Brad Dannefaerd with the 701 paua confiscated from one group of three men in South Taranaki on Saturday.

Just weeks after introduction of new regulations aimed at making it easier to gather legal paua in Taranaki, shocked fishery officers this weekend discovered poaching on a massive scale.

On Saturday they rushed to several locations along the South Taranaki coast following a spate of calls from members of the public complaining that people were collecting paua in numbers way over the legal daily limit of 10 per person.

What they discovered shocked them.

One group of three Stratford men were found with a total of 701 paua, another trio from South Taranaki had more than 150 of the shellfish – and while the fisheries officers were dealing with these people, dozens more people scattered off the beaches carrying sacks containing hundreds more paua.

If convicted, the apprehended poachers could face fines of up to $250,000 fine, forfeiture of gear and vehicles, and – if it can be proved that there was a commercial motive behind the poaching – up to five years in prison. Already one group has had its vehicle seized.

Yesterday Ministry of Fisheries fishery officer Brad Dannefaerd said he could not believe what he saw.

"These people used to be called poachers – now we call them fish thieves," he said.

"They are showing total disregard for the sustainability of paua stocks in Taranaki, stocks which belong to everyone.

"We are obviously very, very disappointed to see so many people flouting the rules like this."

The fishery officers were alerted to the poaching by locals who used the ministry's 0800 4 POACHER phone line to report the suspicious behaviour.

They headed to several locations between Manaia and Opunake and discovered dozens of people collecting the paua. To their horror the officers quickly discovered some very big hauls were being collected, and moved in to apprehend some of the groups.

"There were too many to deal with. And while we were dealing with some of the offenders, numerous others walked past us, heads down and quickly. They obviously also had sacks full of far too many paua," said Mr Dannefaerd.

As a result of apprehending some of the culprits, officers were able to return close to 1000 paua back to the sea.

What has particularly disappointed the fishery officers is that the plundering of Taranaki's paua stocks comes just eight weeks after introduction of unique legislation aimed at making it easier for locals to legally get their fair share of the shellfish.

On October 1 the minimum legal size for paua in Taranaki was reduced from 125mm to 85mm, which recognised the fact that local paua are naturally small and grow to only 90-100mm in shell length.

The daily limit of 10 paua per person remained the same however, and at the time of the change the Ministry of Fisheries warned that whereas fisheries officers had previously used their discretion and issued warnings for taking undersized paua, there would be none of that under the new rules.

The local fishery officers are also annoyed that this incident has occurred right in the middle of an "Every Fish Counts" summer education campaign that is aimed at encouraging New Zealanders not to catch too many fish.

"And we get this," said Mr Dannefaerd.

"This incident is reminiscent of the bad old days when I started work in New Plymouth and there hadn't been a fishery officer here for eight years. The paua stocks were being seriously plundered then. I really thought those days were behind us."

However, he wanted to commend the members of the public who used the 0800 number to notify the ministry.

"It's good to see that locals aren't prepared to stand by and allow such offending," he said.

A fisheries sweep on North Taranaki beaches last night found fewer poached paua.

- © Fairfax NZ News