Fines For Fishing With Small Mesh Met

Northern Advocate, 27 May 1940, Page 3

Fines For Fishing With Small Mesh Met

The netting of flounder by means of a seine or drag net, of less size than that prescrbed by the regulations was charged again Jack Salle, Tony Salle and Charles Young in the Whangarei Court today. The charges were brought by the Superintendent of Marine, for whom Mr L. A. Johnson appeared, and each man was fined £1 with costs and ordered to pay solicitor’s fee of 10/6. Young pleaded guilty and Mr Johnson said that the other two men, who did not appear, had intimated to him that they pleaded guilty. The regulations . under which the charge was brought had come into force on October 18, 1939, said Mr Johnson, and it was possible none of the men understood the position. Brought As Warning It was the first case of the kind to be brought in Whangarei, but there had been charges in Auckland, where fines of £1 and costs had been inflicted where the offences had not been of a serious nature. ' The present charges had been brought as a warning and he was not pressing for a heavy penalty. Roland Conrad Bush, inspector for the department, said that he had seen the three men netting at Parua Bay, and had inspected the net, which had a mesh less than that prescribed in the regulations. Thirty-five of the fish caught were undersize. Inflicting the fines, the magistrate IMr Ferner) said the charges had been brought as a warning, and he hoped publicity would be given them.