A fishing boat master has been fined $13,000 for not deploying seabird protection equipment while long-lining for tuna and swordfish.
Photo: AFP
David Macale was in charge of the fishing boat, Stella B, in 2016.
He has appeared by audio visual link before a judge in the Napier District Court and fined for offending on 20 occasions by not using bird scaring tori lines over a two-month period.
Instead, he used surface, long-line sets, ranging from eight to 19-nautical mines long, containing more than 1000 hooks.