His courier van and mobile phone were also forfeited.Ministry for Primary Industries southern region investigations manager John Gibson said the ministry planned the operation after becoming aware that paua and rock lobster were being offered for sale on the black market to commercial outlets.
He said Yee had been inspected on many occasions by fisheries officers when he owned and operated a restaurant and knew that buying and on-selling black market fish was illegal.
"The sale of recreational catch means there is no limit as to what is taken and no effort is made to assist in maintaining the fishery. It takes away from what is a national and community owned resource," Mr Gibson said.
"This sort of offending hurts all of New Zealand."