Ministry names fish probe firms

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

The Ministry of Fisheries, under pressure yesterday from the fishing industry, has named the five commercial operators it is investigating for allegedly fishing illegally and misreporting their catch.

They are the Sealord Group in Nelson, Wellington-based Nelson Fisheries, and Tauranga companies Matariki, Tawera Fishing Company and Pelco NZ.

No charges have yet been laid.

On Wednesday, fisheries officers impounded two large purse seine vessels, Matariki 2 and Tawera 2, with a combined value of about $3.2 million.

Simultaneously, officers swooped on premises in Nelson and Wellington, seizing paperwork and computer records.

It was the culmination of several weeks of an undercover operation code-named Purse.

The two vessels were bonded back to their owners late yesterday, after directors met lawyers and ministry officials in Tauranga.

Sealord chief executive Doug McKay said yesterday that the company did not operate purse seine vessels and none of its fleet, contractors or charter boats was under investigation.

The group was assisting the ministry with its inquiries into alleged illegal fishing by a company in Tauranga, he said.

The third party had fished against a Sealord permit last year and "allegedly provided us with inaccurate catch reports, which were filed under our name as permit holders", said Mr McKay.

A spokesman for the Matariki, Tawera and Pelco companies, Harry Mikaere, said all three were co-operating with the ministry's investigation.

Mr Mikaere, who is chairman of directors of Matariki, said the company's major shareholder was Nga Hukatai, which represented a number of Maori interests. Other shareholders were Nelson Fisheries and Astro Fishing.

Tawera Fishing Company had an equal shareholding of Nga Hukatai, Matariki, Nelson Fisheries, Astro and Pelco.

Nelson Fisheries, which sold its fishing plant in Picton and its marine farm interests several years ago, is understood to hold the permits Matariki and Tawera fish under, and to own the quota.

The managing director, Jonathon Meikle, is also a director of those two companies. He could not be contacted.

The catch from the Matariki 2 and Tawera 2 was supplied to Mt Maunganui fish receiver Pelco NZ, a privately owned company which specialises in processing pelagic fish for export and local markets.

One of the vessels seized allegedly took more than 948,000kg of fish illegally over several months, while operating without a fishing permit and certificate of registration.

Investigators allege that the five companies involved breached fisheries law by failing to accurately record about 170 tonnes of fish caught by the two vessels against their catch entitlements.

Pelco, Sealord and Tawera are also accused of catching or buying about 950 tonnes of fish over three months from an unregistered fishing vessel.

A ministry spokesman said it was difficult to estimate the scale of the alleged offending until the documentation had been processed. That could take days - or weeks.

When news of the ministry's swoop broke early yesterday, other commercial operators were annoyed that the companies under investigation had not been named immediately.

Ian van der Nagel, Tauranga branch manager of Sanford, said the allegations were "tarnishing all of us".