Dead Snapper an Accident, not Dumped

The chairman of the Pagrus Auratus Company Limited, Mr Bruce Young, has announced that the Company will arrange for 500kg of Snapper quota (from region Snapper 1) to be leased to the Crown to prevent it being available for this years harvest.

Pagrus Auratus is the Latin species name for Snapper. The Pagrus Auratus Company is the stakeholder group representing Snapper quota owners in the Northern Region.

A fisherman had a net burst this week and was unable to raise anyone on his vessel’s radio to come to his assistance. The result was that around 200kg of fish was not taken on board the vessel and floated away. “It is not an illegal act, it is an accident” said Mr Young, “but we are stepping in to ensure that this fish is more than covered by commercial quota and the annual commercial catch limits are not exceeded.”

“We have discussed this matter with the Ministry of Fisheries Compliance Manager, Mr Ian Bright, and the Regional Compliance Manager, Mr Stephen Atwill and they are more than happy with the arrangement, and we will be putting the paperwork in place later this week” said Mr Young.

After initial fears that the fish had been dumped to maximise quota, as reported in The Herald 18/10/2000, Mr Atwill confirmed that because of the mixed size range of the wasted fish, he was convinced this was an accident rather than a case of indiscriminate dumping. He was happy with the outcome of the Pagrus Auratas investigation but said that that had the fisherman immediately contacted the Ministry of Fisheries arrangements could have been made for others to go out and gather the fish.

“The Pagrus Auratus Company self police themselves extremely well” Mr Atwill said. “In a small town like Coromandel, a commercial fisherman can ill afford to dump fish and jeopardise the livelihood of so many others.”