Four men fined for overfishing paua

The paua that saw four men convicted in the Kaitaia District Court last week. Photo / MPI

Four men, three of them from the Far North, lost their friend's four-wheel-drive vehicle and were fined a total of $8000 after they admitted possession of more paua than their customary permit allowed.

Jared Ngawhika (32, sickness beneficiary, Kaitaia), Ryan Ngawhika (26, unemployed, Kaitaia), Zane Busby (35, unemployed, Ahipara) and Morgan Clarken (26, unemployed, Pukekohe) admitted possessing excess and undersized paua, when they appeared before Judge John McDonald in the Kaitaia District Court last week.

Each defendant was convicted and fined $1500 on the first charge and $500 on the second, and were ordered to pay court costs of $260. The Jeep Cherokee they had borrowed from a friend to go diving was forfeited to the Crown.

The court heard that ministry compliance officers stopped the four, who had been gathering paua at Tauroa (Reef Point), at Shipwreck Bay on February 3. They had a customary permit to gather 60 paua, with no size limit, for an unveiling at Ahipara on April 4.

But 175 paua were found in the vehicle, with only two of them of a legal size.

Clarken and Ryan Ngawhika told the officers they knew the minimum legal size and the permitted daily limit (10 per person), but Busby said he did not. Jared Ngawhika said he knew the legal size limit. None of the four gave a reason for having more paua than were allowed by the permit, and none had appeared before the court on fisheries matters previously.

Acting Northland District compliance manager Steve Rudsdale reiterated that paua needed to live in groups to breed successfully.

"If large areas are cleaned out, this will have a severe impact on the ability of paua to reproduce. This sort of overfishing puts the future of the resource at risk," he said.

-The ministry encourages people to report any suspicious fishing activity to 0800 4 POACHER (0800 476-224). All calls are confidential.

'Susceptible to overfishing'

Ordinary paua (Haliotis Iris) is a high-value shellfish, which because of its limited coastal habitat and sedentary nature is susceptible to over fishing. And it has poor reproductive ability, scientists believing they may breed only once every five to 10 years.

So the Ministry for Primary Industries stated in the summary of facts against four men who admitted possessing excess and undersized paua when they appeared before the Kaitaia District Court last week: "Paua are broadcast spawners, and to breed successfully have to live in clumps. If large areas of paua are cleaned out, this will impact severely on (their) ability to reproduce," the ministry added.

"The reefs along the west coast ... in the vicinity of Ahipara are one of few locations in the district that paua inhabit in large numbers. This particular reef area is close to town, with easy access, and only extends for six kilometres along the coastline." The ministry had noted an increase in offending in that area.