Illegal fishers have tried a number of measures over the years to outsmart NSW Department of Primary Industries Fisheries Officers by concealing their ill-gotten catch within everyday items, however, fisheries officers are as inquisitive as illegal fishers are ingenious having foiled even the most elaborate attempts at subterfuge. Fisheries Officers have uncovered illegal catch in purpose-built compartments, under screwed-down deck panels, inside double-bottomed buckets and buried deep in the sand under a beach angler’s feet. DPI Director of Fisheries Compliance, Patrick Tully, said a new low was recently discovered when an illegal catch was found in a portable toilet at a campsite adjacent to the Trout Cod Protection Area, between Yarrawonga and Tocumwal on the Murray River.
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“This is not the first time officers have sniffed out an illegal haul,” Mr Tully said.
“After noticing a disproportionally strong smell of fish and irregularities in the floor fasteners on a boat at a ramp on Botany Bay, officers found a concealed compartment containing a whopping 159.77kg of prized Gemfish. “
A Sydney man pleaded guilty for possessing the hidden fish in Sutherland Local Court in September 2018. He was fined $8000 for exceeding the bag limit and given an additional monetary penalty of $5,000 for committing an offence involving a priority species of fish (Gemfish is a priority species and has a bag limit of two per day. “DPI Fisheries have been reviewing their data from the 2017-18 financial year and it quite revealing how much illegal fishers think they can get away with, but don’t,” Mr Tully said.
“Over 50,000 people were checked for their fishing activities and more than 6000 were found offending, mostly along the coast. In the last financial year, we have seized 2,470 items of fishing gear and equipment. “A total of 3049 reports on illegal fishing were made to DPI through its Fishers Watch system which often leads to immediate apprehensions or intelligence about illegal fishing.” In 2017-18, officers also seized over 48,000 fish and invertebrates including: More than 30,000 cockles, whelks, snails and oysters, over 2500 abalone,1093 mud and blue swimmer crabs,564 yellowfin bream, 501 snapper, 332 sand whiting, and 308 rock lobsters. The highest penalties ever registered for fisheries offences in NSW were recorded last December with two men receiving gaol sentences, one suspended and over $2 million in fines, penalties, costs, and forfeitures awarded against three men and two businesses in Wollongong for illegally dealing in lobsters. Illegally caught Trout Cod were found by NSW Fisheries in a camping port a loo.
