Bay officers seize illegal paua

Bay of Plenty fishery officers have seized dive gear and 116kg of paua worth $15,000 from around the region over the last two days.

Raids on the properties came about after a year of monitoring alleged black market activity.


Bagged frozen paua, dive gear and freezers were some of the items seized in a black market fisheries operation on Tuesday and Wednesday (November 24 and 25). Photos: Supplied.

Officers seized paua, dive gear, electronic equipment, including computers, tablets and cell phones, and two freezers across the Bay.

The black market ring was allegedly centred on Motiti Island, off the coast of Tauranga, where divers gathered paua and kina and sold them to a network of buyers in Tauranga, Whakatane, Hamilton and Auckland.

Fishery officers and police searched houses on Motiti Island and in Tauranga, as well as several business premises.

This included a powered-storage facility at Mount Maunganui, where they seized two freezers containing 116kg of paua with a commercial value of $15,000. The paua was minced and frozen in 500g and 1kg bags – 210 bags in total.

A Tauranga food business is alleged to be involved in the sale of paua and kina.

Ministry for Primary Industries Waikato/Bay of Plenty district compliance manager Brendon Mikkelsen says this week's operation was the result of a year-long investigation and analysis into black market activity.

During this time, it is believed 231kg of minced paua, with a commercial value of $30,000, was poached and sold. It is believed 43 litres of kina were poached and sold for $3500.

Brendon says paua and kina are a prized resource in the Bay of Plenty.


Two freezers containing 210 bags of paua were seized as part of the operation.

'Paua and kina don't move around much and need to be in reasonable numbers to successfully reproduce,” he explains.

'Such offending in concentrated areas may impact on the species' ability to breed and on other people's opportunity to gather.

'People like this are effectively thieving seafood from their own communities to make a quick buck.”

Brendon says fishery officers will be going through the seized electronic equipment and carrying out further investigations before considering laying charges.

'We'd like to hear from anyone who may have information that will help us with our inquiries,” he says.

Please report any suspicious fishing related activity to the 0800 4POACHER hotline (0800 4 762 243).

You may also like....

7 comments

And...

Posted on 25-11-2015 15:17 | By penguin

...the Rena owners gave a lot of money to Motiti Island...


All tarred with the same brush

Posted on 25-11-2015 15:42 | By robin bell

eh! penguin. Well done yet again.


SNAPPT!!!!

Posted on 25-11-2015 16:27 | By Me again

BL..DY good job you lot. Get yourself an honest JOB. And you penguin not all trusts or maraes over there got a black cent. Probably in your pocket if you're from there. Well done MAF and police.


MAYBE

Posted on 25-11-2015 21:38 | By How about this view!

The Kaitiaki will be a little miffed..... Maybe not??? Let's wait and see, when the case comes to court!


Criminals

Posted on 26-11-2015 08:33 | By monty1212

Greedy selfish morons who don't care about anything but lining their pockets with ill gotten dollars!


Predictable

Posted on 26-11-2015 08:40 | By penguin

For Me again &robin bell


Don't stop

Posted on 26-11-2015 12:57 | By So

Throw the book at the offenders with the maximum penalties or no doubt they'll be back as soon as possible to continue with the wanton theft!


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.