A Nelson fisher has been fined $13,500 for fishing commercially in a protected marine reserve.
Fishing nets for trawling. Photo: photo 123RF
Colin Lyall Sharland was convicted in the Nelson District Court today for his unlawful trawl last December in the Kahurangi Marine Reserve on the West Coast of the South Island.
He caught more than 2000kg of fish with a wholesale value estimated at $10,699.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said the offending was detected by an electronic monitoring system which sends an alert when vessels enter restricted or prohibited areas.
It said that on 31 December last year, Sharland - who was skippering Jay Belle - deployed a bottom trawl net about 18.9km south of Kahurangi Marine reserve. The vessel travelled north and entered the reserve, still towing the trawl net.
The net travelled along the seafloor within the reserve for one and a half hours, covering a distance of almost nine kilometres.
MPI compliance manager Howard Reid said the ministry accepted the skipper did not mean to fish in the marine reserve, but it did expect fishers to know the rules before they went out.
That included knowing the location of the boundary lines for marine reserves and taking care to avoid them.
"These rules are in place for good reason - to protect the diversity of marine life on the sea floor and in the water."
The Kahurangi Marine Reserve was established in 2014. It covers about 84 square kilometres and is one of the largest marine reserves in New Zealand.
Marine reserves were managed by the Department of Conservation.