The Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve where two men were seen fishing.
The Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve where two men were seen fishing.
The Department of Conservation says no decision has been made on how they will proceed with charges against two men caught fishing within The Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve.
Whangarei DoC conservation services manager Andrea Booth said it could take a week or more before the team gathered the informationneeded to proceed with charges and no decision on whether to prosecute the men would be made before then.
In 1998 The Poor Knights Islands was made a marine reserve and no fishing is allowed within 800m from any rock. Anyone caught could face a $10,000 fine and immediate confiscation of their vessel.
Kent Erickson works for Ocean Blue Adventures and was assisting six tourists who were diving at The Poor Knights Islands when he saw two men aboard a tin fishing boat with two lines over the side on Saturday.
He said he whistled and called to the men to stop what they were doing, but when he boarded an inflatable boat to approach them the men took off, only to find a new location to drop lines within the marine reserve.
Mr Erickson has worked in the chartered dive business for years and said he had never seen such a blatant flouting of the law.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Fisheries Northland field operations manager Darren Edwards said Northland fishers and shellfish gatherers had generally been following the fishery rules this summer holiday.
"Everyone's been quite tidy from what I can gather," he said.
