By ARNOLD PICKMERE
The runabout on the launching ramp at Kawakawa Bay in the Firth of Thames south of Auckland seemed unusually heavy.
The four men with it were having trouble getting it up the ramp and the tow-car's wheels were spinning, even though three of the men were pushing the boat from behind.
When honorary fishery officers asked to see the catch, they were told the boaties had caught 36 snapper - the legal maximum, at nine fish each, on Auckland's east coast.
The owner showed them his fish box, which contained 45 legal-sized fish.
He was then asked, three times, if there were any other fish in the boat. He said there were not.
A search found a further 199 snapper - including 44 under the 270mm legal limit - hidden under squabs in the cabin.
The total catch weighed almost 196kg.
This is no isolated story. Ministry of Fisheries officers in Greater Auckland are alarmed at a spate of cases of large numbers of snapper being taken in recent months. Other areas, especially the Bay of Plenty, are also having serious problems.
The fisheries officers say the fish is intended for a black market thriving in South Auckland in particular.
Some poachers are believed to be making as much as $1000 from a day's fishing.
Nationally, the trade in illegal fish and shellfish amounts to several hundred tonnes a year.
Some poachers around Auckland have bought as much as $300 worth of bait for a day's dawn-to-dusk fishing.
The Auckland market is also a destination for illegally taken rock lobster from the East Coast and poached paua from the Wellington region.
But snapper, people plundering stripping beds and illegal nets are the main worries around Auckland.
"There are now far too many people living in Auckland to allow this sort of plunder - the resource simply cannot handle it," says the ministry's district compliance manager in Auckland, Ian Bright.
Fisheries officers say only a small number of "exceptionally greedy" fishermen are doing most of the damage.
The case on the Kawakawa Bay ramp has some quite typical features. You display your legal catch and hide the rest. You deny you have any other fish.
And the hidden ones often include a significant number of under-sized fish. All four men later admitted catching the fish, but said they did not know the rules on daily and size limits. But, says Mr Bright, if they hide fish, "it reeks of intent."
"In other words, they are deliberately setting out to break the law."
The result of that case was a $1200 fine and $130 in court costs for each man for possessing fish contrary to the Fisheries Act. And their boat, worth about $10,000, was forfeited to the Crown.
A few other cases:
Half Moon Bay boat ramp - a boat comes in, down at the bow, with two men on board. The bin in the cockpit contains 13 snapper and one trevally. A hatch closing off the front section of the boat is removed, revealing 90 more snapper. The owner is fined $750 plus $130 court costs and $100 solicitor's fees. He loses his fishing gear ($500), and his boat and outboard ($5000) are forfeited.
Kawakawa Bay ramp again. Two men show eight snapper in a box. Thirty-nine others are found in a hidden compartment under the skipper's seat. The case has still to come to court.
Four men caught with 407 snapper (107 undersized) are fined a total of $19,610 and lose their fishing gear, outboard and boat to the Crown.
If those two men fishing east of Tiritiri Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf are recreational fishermen, why have they got a power winch on the boat pulling in a longline? A check reveals they have two longlines and 237 traces and hooks on board, fishing with one line and rebaiting the other.
An amateur longline should have only 25 hooks. Fisheries officers found 110 snapper, including 39 under size, on board.
The two unemployed men were fined a total of $750 and $130 court costs, and their $4000 boat was forfeited.
Poachers try all sorts of ways to cheat the 260 or so honorary fisheries officers on watch. In the North Island they are backed by 70 fulltime officers.
One trick is to return to the boat ramp after dark. Another is to go out twice in a day, bringing back limit catches each time, and hope you are not spotted both times. Other tricks involve dropping the catch off to an accomplice at a nearby beach, or using a cellphone to check that fisheries officers are not at the boat ramp.
Fish are hidden anywhere in the boat, even in false battery boxes. One man had an outboard with no engine. Under the cowl were several hundred shucked scallops.
One woman had scallops hidden down her pants, and one man put a load of them under his hat. Seeing the juice dripping down his face, the honorary fisheries officer politely asked if he would mind removing his hat while they talked.
But the trade has a sinister side.
Paua divers near Wellington have been caught hiding their haul on the shoreline, then returning to the boat ramp.
Later they recover the catch and sell it. Buyers have no idea how long it may have been sitting unrefrigerated in the open.
Nor do they know if it has come from an area affected by algal bloom.
Wellington fisheries officer Dave McCulloch believes about 130 tonnes of paua a year are poached out of a closed area on the Wellington and Wairarapa coasts.
It was closed because of pollution concerns, and faecal counts are still high in many places.
Mr McCulloch says one group of people caught in the area had 2000 paua and another, 6000.
The trade is "very, very organised," with five or six divers often acting for a single middleman. It also has some gang connections. Most of the paua is thought to finish up in Auckland restaurants.
Paua from Wellington and rock lobster from the East Cape are driven to Auckland and Hamilton in vehicles which may not have a chiller.
Sometimes the transport vehicle is stolen. Rental cars have also been used.
Fisheries officers in Wellington have also noticed a trend for poachers to use cheap boats of dubious quality, knowing they are likely to lose them if they are caught.
Officers in Wellington and Auckland say more fish poachers are now being "dobbed in" by people annoyed by their activities.
In late August, four men were caught with 140 paua at Makara Beach, southwest Wellington, after police received calls about flashing lights at the beach.
Trevor Collings, a long-time honorary officer at Kawakawa Bay, says other fishermen now often call out encouragement when they see a poacher being caught.
But poachers are succeeding because they have ready markets for their catches. Ministry officials believe most operations supply a small number of outlets such as restaurants and takeaways, rather than being organised on a large scale.
Tauranga fisheries officer Peter Williams says fish is also sold, raffled and bartered in workplaces, hotels and clubs,
"In some areas these [fish] products are seen as second currency and are traded widely for goods and services," he says.
The Ministry of Fisheries, which has already tightened the noose on illegal activity by commercial fishers, is stepping up its campaign on smaller law-breakers with some hefty penalties. And a national campaign to stem illegal sales and lotteries in hotels is beginning in the Bay of Plenty.
For large-scale fishers, the system is difficult to bypass. Only specified entities are allowed to receive fish when it is landed, and they must complete statutory returns for the ministry. Fishers at sea must also provide catch returns, which are periodically verified by ministry observers.
The returns are used to ensure catch limits are not breached and also to provide data for fish stock assessments.
Returns from commercial vessels are cross-referenced with those provided by licensed fish receivers, and can be further matched with figures detailing fish exports.
Fish which enters the national market is also tracked through record-keeping requirements for people such as restaurants and fish merchants. Misreporting carries penalties of up to $250,000.
In the 1999-2000 financial year, the ministry took 133 cases of unlawful fishing activities to court. Some of the cases followed undercover operations to catch long-suspected poachers. The prosecution success rate was 95 per cent.
Some industry observers suggest one factor encouraging dealing in illegal fish is that most fishing quota is now held by large companies concentrating on high-earning exports or on supplying only some local outlets.
They say many takeaway bars and restaurants struggle to find adequate quantities or selection of legal fish.
And plenty of people are prepared to pay $4 a kilogram for "hot" snapper or $10 a kg for fillets, instead of normal shop prices of around $20.
Setting the nets for fish pirates
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