Cray tails too small

Press, 9 June 1977, Page 5

Cray tails too small

Nelson reporter There appeared to be a difference of opinion about how crayfish tails should be measured, and the only real way to resolve it would be to bring the matter before the Court, said Mr G. W. Allan, counsel for the Te Anau fisherman, in the Magistrate’s Court at Nelson.

Graeme Murray Bennett, the skipper of the trawler Spindrift, pleaded guilty to a charge of selling undersized crayfish at Nelson on February 1 this year. He was convicted and fined $2OO by Mr K. H. J. Headifen, SAI., and ordered to pay solicitor’s fees of $2O.

A consignment of crayfish from the defendant was inspected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries on February 10 at Nelson, and a total of 105 tails were found to be

under the minimum length of 152 mm, said Mr J. R. Aubin, for the department. The defendant was invited to meausre the under-sized tails himself, and made 87 of the tails come within the 152 mm minimum. However, the departmental inspectors did not accept this method of measuring, which was a form of pressuring the tails to reach the limit, he said. The department therefore maintained that all 105 tails were under-sized, Mr Aubin said. Of these, 75 were under 150 mm, and 30 were 150 mm. None were on the allowable marginal length of 151 mm. The defendant had been warned last year for landing under-sized tails, but had not been prosecuted before now, Mr Aubin said. The maximum fine under the act was $lOOO, and $5 per under-sized

tail, he said. There was some difference between the way the tails were measured by the inspectors and by some fishermen, said Mr Allan. At the time the defendant had meausred the tails, the inspectors had made no comment about the pressure he was exerting on the tails. There appeared to be two ways of measuring —o n a flat board, and against the body. The shortest tail measured was 149 mm, and the defendant said 87 were on the borderline. The warning given the defendant last year was in respect of four tails in one consignment — this out of a total landing of 44,000 tails he had made in the year, Mr Allan said. The defendant said that he returned to the sea between 65 and 70 per cent of his catch.