He said he always thought there was an exclusion zone which meant commercial fishers were not allowed closer than 5km of the shoreline but said trawlers had been working the coast from Castlecliff up to Waitotara and coming in very close to the shore.
"We've been getting snapper and rig [lemon fish] but these jokers have turned up and are cleaning the beach out."
He said he had been told another trawler had worked off Mowhanau for the week before Christmas and later unloaded 340 tonnes of fish across the Wanganui wharf.
"That's a hell of a lot of fish from this area."
Barbara and Doug Penn have lived at Mowhanau for about four years and Mrs Penn said they noticed the trawlers coming inshore last year and again this year.
She said in recent days a smaller trawler had been fishing close to the beach then heading out to a bigger trawler a few kilometres out to sea. She presumed the smaller boat was off-loading its catch to the bigger vessel.
"Last year there was one trawler working so close to the beach I rang the police but they put me on to the Coastguard. I thought there was a limit to how close these boats could work but the Coastguard told me that wasn't the case.
"The last time I saw these boats working so close in I got so upset I had to pull the curtains. They've been fishing day and night 24/7. They've got the whole ocean to fish in so why don't they leave our bay alone? They're just being mean," Mrs Penn said.
Other locals have expressed their concerns to Wanganui district councillor Ray Stevens who said he would push to get something done about inshore trawling.
"I want the council to speak with iwi and the Department of Conservation about this inshore trawling because recreational fishers are getting hammered." Mr Stevens said one option might be to create a marine reserve of some sort to protect the area or at the very least ban trawlers from fishing close to the shore.
"Council needs to get together with iwi, DoC and the local fishers then have a go at the Minister of Fisheries to get something sorted," he said.
A spokesperson at the Whanganui DoC office said the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) had means of tracking all trawlers so they knew exactly when and in what areas they were catching their quota.
He said any member of the public concerned about trawler activity should record the name and number of the vessel and pass the information on to MPI.
A spokesperson for MPI told the Chronicle that fish stocks for the Wanganui area were managed as part of an area extending from Wellington to North Taranaki.
He said the focus was to ensure each fish species was being fished sustainably across the whole area.
"Vessels under 46 metres that are based in New Zealand have no restriction on how close they can fish to the coast, as long as they are not fishing in a closed area. A closed area might be a marine reserve, an area where there is some form of recreational or customary tool to exclude commercial fishing, or a cable protection zone.
"Foul ground, sand bars, waves, currents and depth are all limiting factors in how close boats can come to shore."
But he said safety rules and common courtesy also applied.
"Commercial vessels are encouraged to avoid areas where recreational boats are actively fishing and vice versa, to avoid mishaps and conflict."
-Do you have photos of trawlers working close to shore? Email news@wanganuichronicle.co.nz or ring 06 349 0728
