Abuse of crayfish regulations ‘a fairly big racket’

Press, 23 November 1976, Page 1

Abuse of crayfish regulations ‘a fairly big racket’

By staff reporters

The industry is large and the policing force of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is small.

The conviction in a Christchurch court last week of Wrightson NMA, Ltd, on a charge of possessing more than 5000 scrubbed crayfish tails, has prompted questions about the regulations and the effects of their abuse on crayfish stocks.

The regional fisheries officer in Christchurch (Mr R. V. Reid) described the abuse of the regulations as "a fairly big racket,” and said that he thought that the majority of undersized crayfish that found their way on to the South Island market came from South Westland. In 1971 the department conducted a blitz on undersized and scrubbed tails throughout New Zealand. Mr Reid said that tons of crayfish were seized during the checks of fishermen, wholesalers, retailers. and restaurants.

He said that they found people trading in illegal crayfish who had no other connection at al! with the industry — they were

concerned only with the illicit trade and at the same time often ran other quite legitimate businesses. They found one person in a boarding-house i Christchurch who was acting as a middleman; she could be telephoned with an order, which she would supply from South Westland.

Mr Reid said that scrubbing was not as serious a problem as taking undersized crayfish. Scrubbing — where'” the eggs of a female are removed — was the sort of thing that went in cycles. The department would clamp down on it and it would die down for a while, then spring up again later. Offences involving undersized crayfish were occurring all the time. Ministry sources in Wellington agree that its policing system is fallible, but consider that the system is working. The Ministry has only one inspector in the Chatham Islands and any intending offender can always receive warning on the local grapevine about when a visit from the inspector is imminent. However, the inspector’s presence gives the Ministry

its own grapevine, and it intercepts offending shipments when they reach the mainland.

The Ministry makes random checks on the Holmdale, aircraft arrivals, and individual boats returning for survey, and will make specific inspections if it receives reliable information.

The Rock Lobster Regulations, 1969, forbid the landing, selling, possessing, processing or exporting of any spiny crayfish with a tail less than six inches or any packhorse crayfish with a tail less than 8$ inches.

Any crayfish carrying external eggs must immediately be returned to the water from which it was taken. To remove the eggs, or sell or possess any crayfish with external eggs (or with the eggs artificially removed) is illegal. The penalty for breaking the regulations is a fine of up to $lOOO and up to $5 for each lobster or tail. Sources within the fishing industry in Nelson told “The Press” that the taking of scrubbed and undersized crayfish was rife in Kaikoura and the Marlborough Sounds. The sources said that there were companies

which specialised in handling illegal crayfish. The operation is reported to be carried out at night most frequently, and companies ha,ve been known to employ extra staff at 2 a.m. to unload and dispatch illegal cargoes. Fishermen have claimed that it is not the legitimate members of their trade who have been breaking the law. They claim that the illicit operations are carried out by professional scubadiving teams, often raiding the pots of legitimate surface fishermen. The illicit dealers are offering crayfish tails to hotels and restaurants at $3 to $3.50 per lb for tails. The current wholesale price in Christchurch is $7.50 per lb for tails. Mr Reid said that it was difficult to police the regulations to the extent that the department wanted to. His area runs from the Waitaki in the south to the Clarence River in the north and out to the Chatham Islands.

He has six officers, one in the Chathams, one in Kaikoura, and four in Christchurch. In that area Mr Reid estimates that there are about 250 to 270 crayfish units operating.