A trio of paua poachers caught with more than 180 undersize paua at Maketu claiming to be for family gatherings have been handed down a range of fines and community work.

James Shane Pahuru, 21, Ngatama Kaienua, 42 and Rauawa Fitzgerald, 33, all appeared in Tauranga District Court facing charges of possessing seafood contrary to the Fisheries Act 1996. Pahuru faced three counts and the other two each.

A bag was found to contain a total of 75 fresh ordinary paua of which 73 measured less than the minimum prescribed size of 125 mm. Photo: MPI.

Ministry of Primary Industries lawyer Morgan Dunn says on October 19, 2013 Pahuru was stopped at Newdicks Beach at Maketu by fisheries inspectors where he told MPI officers he had been gathering seafood.

Upon a search 84 fresh paua were located in Pahuru's dive bag.

Under MPI bag and size limits a fisher is only legally permitted 10 paua a day of a minimum legal size of 125mm. Paua must be landed in a measurable state and unshelled, so that officers can check all harvested paua are of legal size.

When questioned by MPI officers, Pahuru says he wasn't aware of the daily limits and thought the size limit was between 100 and 110cm.

'He said [to officers] it was just greed I suppose,” says Morgan.

Five months later on March 2 he was stopped again at Newdicks Beach, this time found with 75 fresh paua of which 73 were undersize and two were unmeasurable.

Again he claimed he was unaware of the size limit and was gathering paua for his grandmother for 'kai”.

Judge Christopher Harding says the Pahuru's first case of offending is bad enough, but to attempt to flaunt the law a second time is a 'considerable aggravating feature”.

On the first two charges Pahuru was convicted and fined $750 plus court costs of $130; and on the third charge 100 hours community work. His dive gear is also confiscated.

Also during a stop on March 2, Kaienua and Fitzgerald were found with 32 and 42 fresh and undersized paua, respectively.

Defence lawyer Rita Nabney says Kaienua was gathering the paua to feed his family, including six children, and Fitzgerald was doing the same.

Kaienua was convicted and fined $750 on the two charges along with $130 in court costs. Fitzgerald was sentenced to 60 and 80 hours community work on each charge to be served concurrently.

'When people do this to feed their family they prevent it for other people in the future,” says Judge Harding.

MPI district compliance manager Brendon Mikkelsen says the outcome is pleasing, especially the harsher sentence handed down to Pahuru.

'We will continue to monitor the Newdicks Beach area closely,” says Brendon