He contacted the Ministry of Fisheries and passed on the GPS co-ordinates for the location.
Fisheries officers from Opotiki collected samples of dead fish, all of which were over the minimum legal size of 25cm.
Poverty Bay field operations manager Tom Teneti said the officers found blue paint embedded under the scales of two snapper.
"The paint was scientifically tested by the University of Otago's isotrace unit, and this contributed to the identification of the source of the dumped snapper," he said.
Electronic evidence obtained from the fishing boat Garraway confirmed that it had been in the area.
When the skipper, Ross Ian Harvey, appeared in court in Tauranga he pleaded guilty to a charge of being a party to the dumping of snapper by West Coast Fishing, and was fined $27,000, which is believed to be one of the largest fines for this type of offending.
Commercial fishers can take snapper over 25cm, although the minimum limit for recreational fishermen is 27cm.
The reason for the difference is that although undersized fish must be returned to the sea whether alive or dead, a lot of snapper between 25cm and 27cm are caught in large nets and would be wasted if discarded. Fish of certain sizes bring higher prices, and the process of illegally discarding unwanted fish is often referred to as high-grading. It can apply to sport fishers who start catching snapper which are bigger than those caught earlier, and they drop the dead small fish over the side.
They are just as culpable as commercial fishers.
The law says that if commercial fishers catch a fish of legal size it must be taken by commercial fishermen and be counted against their catch entitlement.
Until recently, recreational fishers were obliged to count all snapper caught and released - even if undersized - in their daily bag, which is nine fish in most areas and 10 on the West Coast. But the ministry recognised this was an unrealistic law and changed it so that only fish which are kept count in the bag.
The minimum limits are set to allow fish to breed at least once before they can be taken.
But many anglers apply their own limits which are higher than 27cm, and put back any fish under 30cm or whatever size they determine.
Unless treated correctly, many of those fish returned to the water will die.
Their eyes are not designed to handle bright sunlight, and their internal organs can be damaged by squeezing.
Flopping around on the deck of a boat - or dry hands - will damage the layer of mucus on the skin, which acts as a barrier to infection. The recommended approach is to cut the hook off if it is deeply embedded in the throat, or flick out the hook with long-nosed pliers or a hook remover, while the fish is in the water.
If it must be lifted out, cradle it in a wet towel and return it as swiftly as possible.
The best system for the health of the fishery would be to have no minimum size limit and for every fish caught in a net or hooked on a line to be taken, irrespective of size.
That way, once the quota was reached or the limit achieved, the fisherman goes home. There would be no wastage.
Unfortunately human nature would not allow this to work.
For example, if the first couple of fish caught on a rod were tiny juveniles and kept, it would be too tempting to discard them when bigger fish were caught.
But too often a small snapper is seen floating belly up as seagulls fight over it. It has obviously been caught, the hook torn out, and the fish thrown back. Then we hear reports of people caught at the launching ramp with hundreds of extra snapper, many of them babies, hidden under the floorboards.
Human greed will always be a problem, and no amount of law changes will stop it.
