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The Ministry of Fisheries has stopped issuing stick-on rulers as measuring guides for recreational fishers while it finds out why some rulers shrink and give false readings.
The action follows a Weekend Herald report that some fishers had complained that they had been unfairly stung for undersized fish after they allegedly measured as legal size on the stickers. At least one sticker produced by a Hamilton angler was clearly 2cm out, puzzling the Ministry of Fisheries and the printers who made it.
Neville Buckley, the ministry's non-commercial liaison manager, said yesterday that 180,000 stick-on rulers had been issued in the past two years. There had been just two recorded and two suspected cases of those stickers shrinking in that time, he said.
The stick-on rulers had been designed to be stuck to flat surfaces on boats or fish bins and when used that way there had been no known shrinkage.
"The rulers are made to be fisher-friendly and under normal operating conditions the rulers are accurate. This applies to over 99 per cent of known cases." But it had come to the ministry's attention that under "severe and abnormal operating conditions" some rulers might shrink.
"We are running tests under a range of conditions to determine how this might happen, but current indications are that this may apply to a small portion of very rare situations."
A ministry spokesman said those conditions would not necessarily be made public as illegal fishers might exploit the information.
Mr Buckley said until more was learned from the tests no more stickers would be issued "but we definitely stand behind the rulers that are out there".
To help detect any future problems fisheries officers and honorary fisheries officers would be paying particular attention to any undersized fish claimed to have been measured against MFish issued rulers, and would check the fish against the rulers in question.
"It is important that such claims are investigated at the time of inspection to verify the legitimacy of the claim.
"It's important to remember what these rulers are designed for ... to help fishers keep to the size limits, which is part of making sure there will be plenty of fish in the sea for future generations to enjoy."
