18 arrested for 'greedy' fishing

The upcoming festive season has led to 18 people being apprehended in Northland in past weeks for exceeding daily catch limits and taking undersized shellfish.

Ministry of Fisheries surveillance officer West Hill says those caught included three people at Tutukaka with 298 undersize paua. The daily limit is 10 125mm paua per person.

Two others were caught with 1022 pipi from the Ngunguru estuary, well over the daily limit of 150 per person.

Ministry staff will be increasing compliance checks in the run-up to Christmas, Mr West says, to avert what he calls "greedy behaviour".