Napier cray pot thieves lose boat

Two men who pilfered crayfish pots in an early morning raid in Napier have been fined and their boat confiscated.
The pair were among four men sentenced this week for gathering undersize seafood or taking more than daily limits.
James Anthony Reed, 47, and David Junior Herewini, 27, appeared in Hastings District Court this week and admitted launching their boat at the hovercraft ramp about 1am on December 13 to steal crayfish from numerous pots.
At 3.15am they trailered their boat and were approached by fishery officers who discovered 44 crayfish on board - 33 of which were undersize.
The legal limit is six crayfish per day.
Herewini told the officers he thought he was allowed 20 crayfish each and said it had been too difficult to measure the catch while on the water.
Judge Richard Watson dismissed the excuse and said measuring the crayfish onboard was "a very simple task".
"I guess you probably never thought you'd see a fisheries officer at 3am in the morning ... you were probably lucky the [pot] owners weren't around to catch you," Judge Watson said.
In addition to having their boat forfeited, the duo, who both pleaded guilty to possessing excess and taking undersize crayfish, were fined $750 on the former charge, and $500 on the later. They were also ordered to pay $264 court costs.
Havelock North man Ricky Strathern Campbell, 50, also appeared in court to plead guilty to taking more than three times the legal paua limit after he was caught with 59 paua at northern Hawke's Bay's Aropauonui Beach on December 4. Of his catch, 56 were found to be undersize.
When questioned by Judge Watson, Campbell said: "You can't get legal paua out there - there's none."
The Judge asked: "Then how are the paua ever going to get to legal size when you keep taking them when they're undersize?"
Campbell said he intended the seafood be taken to a tangi, and was not aware he could obtain a customary permit for higher numbers.
He was fined $900 and ordered to pay costs of $264.
In a third fisheries matter on the same day the Hastings District Court heard Arama Alexander Kaka, 26, of Flaxmere, was caught gathering seafood despite being prohibited from doing so in January 2010.
After a string of fisheries offences dating back to 2005, including taking shellfish from a marine reserve, Kaka was banned for three years from engaging in any fishing activity.
On December 7 he was caught collecting seafood, including crayfish and kina, at Aramoana Beach in Central Hawke's Bay.
His lawyer, Matt Phelps, said his client was a "very unsophisticated individual" and that there had been no commercial element to the offending.
He was sentenced to 150 hours of community work.