By KEVIN TAYLOR
A prosecution may follow the dumping of hundreds of dead snapper in the Hauraki Gulf off Coromandel.
The Ministry of Fisheries said the dumping was illegal and it was looking for the culprit.
Its Tauranga district compliance manager, Stephen Atwill, went to Whitianga yesterday to meet local commercial fishermen.
The snapper season has just started and the fish are spawning in big schools in the inner gulf.
Hundreds of the snapper were spotted by local fishermen off Papaaroha, north of Coromandel, on Monday.
Papaaroha motor camp owner Peter Sander, who alerted the authorities, said he went on one trip with the fishermen and collected about 80 floating off the coast near Waitete Bay.
"People around the area got a good feed of snapper," he said.
Mr Atwill said the culprits might have trawled a large school of snapper and the net mighty have split.
It was possible their holds could not cope with the numbers and they might have dumped some deliberately.
He said it was serious offending. Dumping was a terrible waste of fish, and did not count towards quota.
In November 1997 thousands of snapper washed up on the Coromandel coast after being dumped by commercial fishermen.
Mr Atwill said that as soon as he heard about the fish dumping on Monday, he rang industry representatives, but could not find out who was responsible.
The industry would also conduct its own inquiry, he said.
In the case of an accident with snapper trawling, he was usually told, but this time he was not informed.
Between 300 and 400 fish were reported to have been dumped, but few have washed up on the Coromandel shoreline.
The only time fish could be dumped was if they were undersized, if the boat was in danger, or the fish were diseased.
There were no indications that the dumped fish fitted any of those criteria, he said.
"It's very disappointing this has happened so early in the season.
"Usually cooperation is very good and [the fishermen] do a lot of self-policing."
Mr Atwill said it was not in the interests of most snapper fishermen to trawl through the middle of a large school. Most fished on the edges.
Mr Sander said he was upset about the dumping, as there had been talk of cutting quotas for recreational fishermen.
Fish-dumpers face charges
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