Over the past year, fisheries officers detected more than 3,000 offences during inspections of recreational fishing boats. Video / Corey Fleming
Fisheries officers identified more than 3000 recreational and 863 commercial fishing offences last year.
The recreational sector had a 94% compliance rate, while the commercial sector had 89%.
Common offences include taking undersized fish and not returning harvesting reports on time.
Fisheries officers say illegal set nets are also a ‘huge problem’ with birds, sharks and seals being caught.
Fisheries officers identified more than 3000 offences while inspecting recreational fishing boats in the past year, and almost 900 breaches were committed by crew on commercial vessels, data obtained by the Herald reveals.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) fisheries staff say a minority in both sectors claim ignorance of therules or wilfully choose to ignore them.
In the commercial fishing sector, the most common breach is not returning harvesting reports on time, skippers failing to inform MPI when they’re hauling in trawl nets or setting lines and vessels being caught with undersized fish.
The Herald understands the owner of the vessel has been charged over the incident.
The most prevalent offence among recreational anglers is taking excess or undersized fish – especially snapper.
Senior fisheries officer Monique Scott on patrol in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf. Photo / Corey Fleming.
Senior fisheries officer Monique Scott told the Herald a recreational fisher in Auckland recently became enraged when approached by fisheries staff and started throwing undersized fish overboard.
“We counted eight [undersized snapper] that he had thrown over. So more than the daily limit. He also had quite a big knife in his hand.”
Monique Scott says illegal set nets in Auckland have become a daily problem for fisheries officers. Photo / Corey Fleming
Scott told the Herald illegal recreational set nets are also a “huge problem”, with up to 10 nets a week being confiscated by staff in Auckland.
“There’s no discrimination when it comes to nets. We get stingrays, sharks, everything really. We’ve even had calls for seals [being caught in nets]. It’s pretty terrible,” she said.
A net found tied to a pedestrian railing on Māngere Bridge in late 2024. Illegal set nets are being retrieved and confiscated by fisheries officers up to 10 times a week in Auckland. Photo / Supplied
There are specific rules for set nets – they must have surface floats with the fisher’s name, they can’t extend more than a quarter of the way across any bay or channel and can’t exceed 60 metres in length.
In recent months, fisheries officers have confiscated nets tied to the pedestrian railing on Māngere Bridge, which is illegal.
A cormorant or shag caught in an illegal set net in the Tamaki Estuary near Māngere Bridge on January 15 this year. Photo / Kathryn Legrove
Two weeks ago, photos were posted on Facebook group Tamaki Estuary Protection Society showing birds trapped or dead after becoming entangled in illegal set nets.
Tamaki Estuary has become a hotspot for illegal set netting despite the use of set nets being forbidden in the waterway.
MPI data shows that last year 863 offences were identified in the commercial fishing sector, as a result of 2122 inspections of vessels by fisheries officers.
In most instances, skippers or crew were issued with a warning.
There were 70 infringement notices handed out and three cases where commercial operators were prosecuted.
Seafood New Zealand chief executive Lisa Futschek described most of the offences as “minor” and described the three prosecutions as “a tiny number”.
Seafood New Zealand chief executive Lisa Futschek. Photo / Supplied
“We are not minimising mistakes – we’re working towards doing better all of the time. We’re saying context is important. The overall compliance rate is consistent with last year at 89% and the issues that are coming up are usually technical, like being late with a return.”
Fisheries compliance North Harbour district manager Glen Blackwell. Photo / Corey Fleming
Fisheries compliance North Harbour district manager Glen Blackwell agreed most commercial offending was technical in nature, but said it wasn’t good enough considering the time spent trying to educate skippers about the rules.
“Our tolerance for people who are not complying has pretty much dropped away now because they’ve had ample time to educate themselves. Because they’re taking fish for commercial gain, our expectation is that they do it the right way.”
Asked whether it was acceptable that commercial fishers are being caught taking undersized fish, Futschek told the Herald it wasn’t.
“We don’t want anyone to take undersized fish. That’s not okay. Fishers don’t want to be making these mistakes. We’re confident no fisher is taking undersized fish on purpose, but because of the nature of fishing some do slip through.”
‘We can do better’
LegaSea's Sam Woolford said most recreational anglers are sticklers for the rules. Photo / Supplied
In the recreational fishing sector, 3288 recreational offences were identified last year after fisheries officers inspected 29,475 vessels.
In most cases, anglers were issued with a warning.
Of the 701 infringement notices handed out, 114 cases ended up as prosecutions before the court.
The recreational sector had a compliance rate of 94% for 2024.
The programme lead of recreational fishing group LegaSea, Sam Woolford, said he was comfortable that most people heading out on the water played by the rules.
He urged anyone using a boat to download the MPI fishing rules app to familiarise themselves with the law.
“I believe a 94% compliance rate from a sample 30,000 people is reasonably good. Particularly considering these are a non-commercial fishers who may only fish a few times a year. That said, we can do better.”
He was surprised some commercial fishers were being caught with undersized fish, considering commercial size limits were smaller than limits for the public.
“What alarms me is the fact the commercial sector is receiving infringements for harvesting undersized fish. Commercial fishers are legally allowed to harvest 25cm snapper and 65cm kingfish. Fish this size tend to still be juvenile so the undersized fish must be tiny.”
Glen Blackwell says all MPI fishery officers are passionate about protecting the resource for future generations. Photo / Corey Fleming.
Blackwell said fisheries officers around the country will be out in force this summer and act as kaitiaki or guardians of the sea and those who ignore the rules can expect to “possibly spend a bit of time in the local district court”.
“If you like we speak on behalf of the fish. It’s a funny way to put it, but that’s our job – to protect that resource and nurture it and make sure that it’s not plundered.”
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won the best coverage of a major news event at the 2024 Voyager NZ Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’svideo team in July 2024.
