The pair ended up being fined in court for the amount of fish they took - and for misleading a fisheries officer. Photo / File
A mates' fishing trip turned a little rough when one blamed the other, and each blamed two people who weren't even on the trip, for catching more blue cod than allowed.
Judge Tony Zohrab said in the Nelson District Court this week it reminded him of a story adults told their children while growing up: "Once you start a lie it's very hard to stop".
"You have lied to each other and to the fisheries officers."
Justin Richard Searle had approval to take his commercial fishing boat out on a recreational fishing trip to remote d'Urville Island in the outer Marlborough Sounds with his mate Andre Julian Christian.
The pair ended up being fined in court for the amount of fish they took – and for misleading a fisheries officer.
Searle faced an even bigger bill to get his boat, the Tempest, back after it was forfeited.
Each admitted three charges under the Fisheries Act related to their catch, and for providing false or misleading details to a fisheries officer during the trip earlier last year.
d'Urville Island sits within a delicate fishery for blue cod, where there have been longstanding concerns about its sustainability.
The daily recreational limit for blue cod in the area is two per person, and all have to be kept in a whole or gutted state unless eaten straight away.
Searle and Christian were found with close to six times more than the daily limit when fisheries officers happened to pass d'Urville Island while on patrol.
During sentencing, Christian apologised to the court and to the Ministry for Primary Industries for his actions.
"I thought it was really remote up there and the fish were plentiful.
"It was a spur-of-the-moment thing and I wouldn't have done it where I thought it might affect the public.
"I'd like to say sorry to MPI and to the court for what I did."
Searle was granted approval to use his commercial fishing boat for the recreational fishing trip from March 29 until April 30 last year.
They left the Nelson Marina on April 27 and arrived at d'Urville Island for a fish that evening.
They set a bait net which caught several finfish including two blue cod, and rock lobster pots they left overnight before heading into anchor in Port Hardy.
The next morning, they got out their fishing rods and caught several blue cod, at least four of which were caught by Searle.
They then went to check the lobster pots but discovered them empty except for unwanted bycatch.
Searle asked Christian to fillet the fish caught the day before, including the blue cod, so the fish frames could be used as bait for the lobster pots.
Fisheries officers on patrol in the area saw the Tempest that afternoon and boarded to inspect it.
Despite being told there were 16 blue cod in a fish bin on the vessel's deck, fisheries officers found 21 fresh whole blue cod in the bin and four fillets from two cod on a bait board.
Searle told the fisheries officers there were four of them on the fishing trip, but the other two were away "freeing a stuck net" before heading off hunting.
He provided two names and a phone number for one of them.
Fisheries officers then seized 13 whole blue cod, leaving eight which was the quantity four fishers were entitled to.
After the officers left they tried to find the other two Searle had told them about, without success.
They made several more attempts over the following days and managed to establish that only Searle and Christian had been on board the Tempest at the time.
Searle then left a message on a fisheries officer's voicemail to say he and not told the truth, after which he was formally interviewed.
He claimed that Christian had caught the rest of the blue cod without his knowledge while he had been trying to retrieve a set net, and admitted lying because he had panicked when he saw the quantity of excess blue cod on the boat.
He confirmed it was his idea to mislead the officers by saying there were four on the fishing trip, although Christian had also backed Searle's story about the names of the other two, who were never on board.
During an interview in June last year, Christian said Searle had caught four of the blue cod and he had caught the rest "because he was greedy".
He said the false story about the other two on board was Searle's idea in an attempt to minimise the severity of the offending, and that he had "gone along with the story".
In sentencing the pair, Judge Tony Zohrab reminded them that blue cod was a treasured species that was still fragile and below sustainable levels in the area they had fished.
He said Searle, as an experienced commercial fisherman, must have been aware of this, yet he was found with almost six times the daily limit for blue cod.
Judge Zohrab said it was equally surprising that Searle maintained he thought the daily limit was four per person, and that they had made a determined effort to mislead officers.
Each was fined a total of $1765 on the three charges, while Searle had to pay $3000 more to get his boat back after MPI did not oppose an application for relief from forfeiture.
"Please don't let yourselves down like this again," Judge Zohrab advised the pair as they left the court.
Blue cod are described by the Ministry for Primary Industries as one of the country's most important recreational and commercial species.
In 2020 a national blue cod strategy was established with the aim of rebuilding areas depleted by overfishing.
Daily recreational bag limits for blue cod in the South Island were set according to a "traffic light" system, with red indicating areas in trouble.
The Challenger (East) area, at the top of the South Island, was currently at red level because stocks of blue cod had not recovered despite efforts to manage it sustainably.