News from Ministry For Primary Industries
A Lower Hutt man and a Napier man have each received three-year fishing bans for repeatedly taking excess and undersize pāua, in recent years.
The men were sentenced in different courts for the unrelated offending yesterday.
Under the Fisheries Act 1996, bans are mandatory for anyone who commits certain offences more than once within seven years.
In 2019 Ionatana Sasi (51) was caught with 144 undersize pāua he took at Eastbourne near Burdan’s Gate in Wellington. It was the second time in four years that Mr Sasi has been before the court for stealing pāua in this area.
The men were
sentenced in different courts for the unrelated offending
yesterday.
Under the Fisheries Act 1996, bans are
mandatory for anyone who commits certain offences more than
once within seven years.
In 2019 Ionatana Sasi (51)
was caught with 144 undersize pāua he took at Eastbourne
near Burdan’s Gate in Wellington. It was the second time
in four years that Mr Sasi has been before the court for
stealing pāua in this area.
When MPI Fishery Officers
asked him to come ashore, he dumped his catch bag in shallow
water. Fishery officers retrieved the bag, inspected his
catch, and found 156 pāua – more than 15 times the legal