Ministry with more clout continues to hook fishing cheats

6.30pm

More than 50 alleged poachers are expected to appear before the courts this year in the crackdown against illegal fishing.

The Ministry of Fisheries said more than 50 people were lined up to face charges in coming months as a result of a series of sting operations.

The ministry has received extra clout to clamp down on fishing cheats under the 1996 Fisheries Act, which came into force last October.

This has given more power to fisheries officers and tougher new penalties with fines of up to $250,000 and jail sentences up to five years.

A Christchurch man was jailed this week for illegal fishing trading.

Boon Lim Chin, 36, arranged for $92,000 worth of paua to be smuggled to Hong Kong in the luggage of tour groups. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months' jail in Christchurch District Court.

The smuggling ring he was connected to was busted by fisheries officers late last year in the undercover Operation Black Ice.

Chin's other business in Christchurch was placing foreign students, one of whom helped him to drop off paua to various sites.

He stored blackmarket paua in freezers at an address which he rented to Asian students.

In April, officers searched homes occupied by Chin and his associates in Christchurch and Dunedin. In a locked garage at an associate's home they found 472kg of paua, some of it undersized, in two freezers.

In March hundreds of defence personnel, fisheries and police officers carried out the termination phase of Operation Pacman which resulted in the confiscation of 40 cars, 13 fishing boats, one tonne of paua, 1500 crayfish, $25,000 in cash, more than one tonne of bait and 200 chickens.

The ministry's national compliance manager Dave Wood said today that Operation Pacman had resulted in 84 arrests.

"We have at least 50 people charged to appear in court as a result of that operation and we are processing other cases.

"Operation Pacman concentrated on crayfish on the east coast of the North Island and paua in Wellington. It resulted in searches in Auckland and Christchurch.

"The operation made us aware of what else was happening."

Mr Wood said the amount of illegal fishing was more than they initially appreciated.

"Illegal fishing has a serious impact. A huge amount of fish was being taken out of a resource that has a very limited capacity.

"The nationwide quota for paua is 1200 tonne and Operation Pacman found 300 tonne was being taken from one area (Wellington). I hope we have at least slowed it down."

Fisheries officers believe the blackmarket for paua and crayfish could be worth more than $20 million a year with suspected links to organised crime.

Yesterday, in Christchurch District Court, Craig Raoul Hill was fined $24,000 plus nearly $7000 in court costs for illegal fishing activities.

Hill had earlier convictions for Fisheries Act breaches in 1987, 1989, and 1992.

- NZPA

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