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Black market shellfish ring busted in Bay of Plenty
Black market shellfish ring busted in Bay of Plenty
25 Nov 2015
Fishery officers finished 12 months of
monitoring black market activity when they moved in and
seized pāua, dive gear and electronic equipment across Bay
of Plenty over the past 2 days (24 and 25 November).
The black market ring was allegedly centred around Motiti Island, off the coast of Tauranga, where divers gathered pāua and kina and sold them to a network of buyers in Tauranga, Whakatane, Hamilton and Auckland.
Fishery officers and police searched houses at Motiti Island and Tauranga, and several business premises, including a powered-storage facility at Mount Maunganui, where they seized two freezers containing 116kg of pāua with a commercial value of $15,000. The pāua 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 pāua
and kina.
Ministry for Primary Industries District
Compliance Manager Waikato/Bay of Plenty Brendon Mikkelsen
said this week's operation was the result of 12 months of
investigation and analysis into black market
activity.
During this time, it is believed 231kg of minced pāua with a commercial value of $30,000 was poached and sold. It is believed 43 litres of kina were poached and sold for $3500.
Total items seized:
116 kg of pāua
2
freezers
35 electronic devices, including computers,
tablets and cell phones
diving gear
Mr Mikkelsen said
pāua and kina are a prized resource in Bay of
Plenty.
"Pāua and kina don't move around much and need
to be in reasonable numbers to successfully reproduce. 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."
Mr Mikkelsen said fishery officers will be going
through the seized electronic equipment and doing further
investigations before considering laying charges.
"We'd
like to hear from anyone who may have information that will
help us with our inquiries."
Report any suspicious fishing related activity to the 0800 4POACHER hotline (0800 4 762 243).
ends
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