Locals make most of 'fish of the day'

A spill led to a feeding frenzy for the locals hoping to catch themselves some dinner.

Hundreds of dead fish spewed into the Napier Marina yesterday when a fisherman lost his day's catch.

At about 3pm the fisherman, who could not be identified, was dragging his net back into the marina because he could not haul his catch onto his boat.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council's (HBRC) team leader of pollution response and enforcement, Mike Alebardi, explained that when the fisherman tried to pull the catch up onto his boat it spilled out.

"A fisherman had caught quite a large amount of red cod and he wasn't able to pull it on deck for some reason so he hauled it in," he said.

"And then when he got into shore and tried to lift it out of the water it all fell out of the net [and] he lost his whole catch in the inner harbour.

"He basically messed up so it will come out of his quota.

He has lost a whole day's catch."

Witness Jen Dillner said she was walking on the other side of the point when she looked over and thought she saw a whole lot of "white stuff" which she thought was ice floating in the water.

"So I drove over realised that there was just dead fish everywhere," she said.

She said she noticed two fisheries officers on the scene so she asked what happened - and one of them explained it to her.

"So he has lost his whole catch out of a net and they are big nets," she said.

Ms Dillner said following this people started to see the opportunity for a free feed.

"One of the local recreational fisherman was down there in his boat and he was scooping up the fish like scoops and scoops," she said.

"But the fisheries guy said to him 'you can only have 20 [fish] per head'."

She said it wasn't long until young families heard this and headed down to the water to see what they could catch.

"I could literally stand on the rocks and get fresh fish out with my hand and take them home," she said.

"And people were doing that. They were saying 'oh yeah we can get some free fish here and we are allowed 20'."

Mr Alebardi said, while he had a couple of staff at the scene at the time this story was filed, the fish did not fall under HBRC's responsibility.

"It is not a pollution related issue, it is related to quota and catch," he said.

"So that is the MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries) when it is not a pollution related incident."

MPI was not available for comment yesterday.

However, Mr Alebardi said with the incoming tide yesterday afternoon the fish could get caught up in the rocks.

"Then it's our problem because we will have to facilitate a clean up or get the fisherman to sort it out," he said.

"So we are hoping it [the catch] will get pulled out on the next tide going out."

He said if the fish do become a problem people can ring the HBRC pollution hotline on 0800 10 88 38.