FINALY A JUDGE WITH BALLS NAILS FISHERMAN OVER LIMIT!
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/man-fined-38000-for-overfishing-in-western-australia/story-e6frfku0-1226099998313
- From: AAP
- July 22, 2011 5:56PM
A WEST Australian angler has been fined almost $40,000 instead of $750 after failing to appear in court to face charges of overfishing by more than 125kg.
Trevor Waters, 46, was found guilty in absentia in the Mandurah Magistrates Court of illegally possessing 145.17kg of frozen fish fillets - 125.17kg over the 20kg limit.
He was fined a total of $38,423 comprising a $750 fine for the offence, a mandatory additional penalty of $37,551 and costs of $122.
He was charged after Fisheries and Marine officers who had him under surveillance saw him collect eight foam boxes from a transport company at Perth Airport and place them in his truck.
The officers followed Waters and later intercepted him, seizing the consignment.
Waters said he had been on a fishing trip where he and his friends had caught fish and freighted them from Carnarvon and Exmouth, in WA's north, for collection in Perth.
He said that as the skipper of the boat he was collecting the fish for his friends.
Fisheries compliance manager John Breeden said regulations clearly stated it was illegal to be in possession of more than 20kg of fish.
"These rules are in place to ensure fishers take sustainable amounts of fish to ensure there are fish for the future for all to enjoy," Mr Breeden said.
................................
Well done Magistrate, well done, send a HARD message to all those that poach! 
ps... if they had all fished and marked their catch in accordance with the rules then there would not have been an issue.
Seems his fishing mates & him did not turn up in court to prove they had only 20kg each!
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
- 4257 reads
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
I think someone
I think someone associated with the board might have something to do with this conviction. Good on them, and good on the judge for that fine!
MattMiller
Posts: 4171
Date Joined: 15/06/09
About time
I'm sure there are plenty more out there that should be hit with similar punishments.
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
it's a huge fine and I would
it's a huge fine and I would have felt sorry if they had just made a "mistake" in not labeling the fillets. But it seems they did not go to the court and explain why so much unmarked fillets where in one persons possession.
take this as a warning to those of you that may bring back mates fillets for them. Rules state very clear that each persons catch must be labeled and marked in accordance to the rules.
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
deepwater
Posts: 1921
Date Joined: 09/05/07
there need to be more of this
there needs to be more of this thats for sure,i work at the local air port and there is alought of seafood going down everday ,about time
jeff
grantarctic1
Posts: 2546
Date Joined: 03/03/11
Only
He has only himself to blame, Its not like he had an extra couple of kg in the freezer.
Good result IMO .
Grant
squidder
Posts: 457
Date Joined: 03/09/10
About time
About time the FD got serious with the likes of these greedy lot.
Let's hope there's more fines like this one.
Top End fines would be even more, boat , car and all his gear.
Alan James
Posts: 2243
Date Joined: 30/06/09
Was it a labelling mistake?
If it was I think they would have appeared in court. The fact that they didn't would lend me to believe he got what he deserved. If it was a mistake, I feel for him and hope his mates get their wallets out.
tangles
Posts: 1367
Date Joined: 17/12/06
no sympathy
no sympathy at all! got what he deserved! lucky he didnt get any of his assests confiscated as well! the rules are plain and simple! break em and yr toast! on the fisheries for stepping up and doing their job! hehe! what a duche bag!
fish for the future not the freezer!!
dodgy
Posts: 4585
Date Joined: 01/02/10
As a few others have
As a few others have suggested there is actually a fair bit more to this story and the fine is actually less than he was expecting.
Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
smash
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 01/12/10
well?
come on-spill the beans...
soupster51
Posts: 2724
Date Joined: 29/11/06
Great
Great to see the rules are being inforce. If only there was more of it. I guess it isn't over though until the fine is paid......
The best reason for doing what's right today is tomorrow.
roberta
Posts: 2773
Date Joined: 08/07/08
Just wish they'd
do inspections in certain peoples freezers in Leeman in the Caravan Park and also houses. Too many people are doing this also, send the wife (or family member that comes up for a visit,) they go home down to Perth with over 20kgs of fish/crayfish, then start fishing all over again. Some locals have bragged they have over 300 crayfish in their freezers during cray fishing season.
Excellent result on Fisheries part, have heard of this happening from people fishing up north, come home with their labelled 20kgs of fish but get a mate to send down 20kgs by freezer truck to their home address.
Ginger Tablets Rock
Michael Yoni
Posts: 604
Date Joined: 02/01/11
To get around the system
To get around the system .....
He should have taken 6 mates with him, then he would have been ok.
Or addressed each consignment to a different person.
(as a reward to his mates he could have given them a few kg's of fillets)
A bit of forward thinking and he would have still had his money.
MY
MattMiller
Posts: 4171
Date Joined: 15/06/09
Missed the point
if you feel like you need to 'get around the system' your obviously doing the wrong thing.
Rules are they to protect the fishery and retain the viability of it. Not to be manipulated and exploited.
pale ale
Posts: 1755
Date Joined: 02/01/10
It is a shame some people
It is a shame some people still want to pillage everything
Michael Yoni
Posts: 604
Date Joined: 02/01/11
Fact of the matter is that
Fact of the matter is that everybody has done one thing or another that is the wrong thing, manipulated or exploited the rules .... no body (even here) are absolute angels. Be it catching one too many fish or one slightly below size or (lets face reality) gone over the speed limit, "cheated the tax man", parking fines, need I go on. ............. Rules are everywhere in everything we do and yes we all break them to what extent you could argue is a valid point.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8673
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Rules
Yes, some of us do break the law by speeding just a little bit over the limit accidentally but we don't go and break the law DELIBERATELY by over a hundred kilos and then don't bother turning up in court and hoping you get a slap on the wrist with a wet train ticket. Bet his arse dropped when they told him what he was up for!!!
IMO he should have got fined more than what he did.
dodgy
Posts: 4585
Date Joined: 01/02/10
He was actually expecting
He was actually expecting double that.
Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
smash
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 01/12/10
yep
speaking in general Michael not in relation to this particular bloke-it would seem that its not hard to believe that Governments like to make rules/laws so complex that the average man has little hope of complying with all the ins and outs.
Provides a ready source of income for them merely by looking closer into various activities.
Fisheries themselves are FAR from exempt from this (dodgy fishing practices).
Any one remember the RV Naturaliste's escapades a few years back?
as far as I remember nothing happened except a "policy change"?
championruby
Posts: 459
Date Joined: 20/01/11
ARe you kidding me? What the
ARe you kidding me?
What the fuck does anyone need to do with 100 plus kilos of fillets!!! Absolutely ridiculous. Good on the judge and fisheries, but there are a lot more doing the same out there.
spanishmackeral
Posts: 940
Date Joined: 05/01/11
i agree mate, on one of our
i agree mate, on one of our recent trips we bought back 18kgs of fillets, even though we gave half of it away, we couldnt even get through it all before it started going funny.
its a bit beside the point because our freezer is a bit dodgy, but 145kgs of fillets isnt gonna last long before it goes off.
good to see the full force of the law being used for once
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15654
Date Joined: 29/11/05
yup
Some great surveillance and follow up work from the officers involved!
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bull
Posts: 80
Date Joined: 28/03/11
Greed
Buy a nice boat for that amount lol
tangles
Posts: 1367
Date Joined: 17/12/06
do the crime
pay the fine hehe! if u want to eat fish everyday go fishing everyday! unfortunately it is an all to common occurance in small fishing towns! as i have seen in kalbarri! boats come up and go to town on the fish! i wish fisheries would set a road block just outa town during holidays because they would have a field day up there! and as for mr yoni! pull ya head brother its not okay and no excuse is a good excuse! commercial fishermen didnt lose their livelyhoods fishing just so people like u can pillage the ocean! and get a couple fish over the limit or undersized fish! i think u need to go and get educated on what is right and wrong! u peanuckle!! hehe!
FISH FOR THE FUTURE NOT THE FREEZER!
MattMiller
Posts: 4171
Date Joined: 15/06/09
Well said Tangles
hit the nail on the head there mate
smash
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 01/12/10
more info?
several posters above have alluded to there being "more to this story etc".
Any chance of an update?
thesupervisor
Posts: 1136
Date Joined: 10/06/09
i like the fine but he should
i like the fine but he should have been made to sit down and eat all the fish every last kilo
that will get rid of his appitite for such large quants of fish
getting the bottom line final answer from a bunch of blokes that use false names and put smiley faces at the end of paragraphs is not the best place in the world to get the information you seek.
pale ale
Posts: 1755
Date Joined: 02/01/10
Funny that one... like my mum
Funny that one... like my mum threatening my brother if she caught him smoking again she would make him smoke the whole packet at once
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15654
Date Joined: 29/11/05
more
More to the story, would you name your boat ' rape and pillage' and not expect to get attention. I had heard the same dodgy re fine.
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smash
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 01/12/10
really?
shoulda called it catch and release....
someone above suggested he was a (ex?) member of FW? name and shame, or is it a secret?
from the above posts there is obviously several people here who know him/her but wont divulge anymore
He cant be too smart-
1/ for the name
2/ cos if he'd just turned up and said he was abused/drunk/on crack etc
Hed have got off a bit lighter
Spinnerak
Posts: 521
Date Joined: 03/04/10
I've always seen people
I've always seen people taking undersize fish, exceding bag limits without being caught.
Good to see someone finally get caught, and after $40000 i don't think he'll do it again!!
Hopefully this will deter some people from doing this as the law is there for a reason.
Fisheries number is 1800 065 522 if anyone needs it.
Subway cookie is the best burley
squidder
Posts: 457
Date Joined: 03/09/10
Pretty simple
Accompany your personal fillets home = ban the transportation of un-accompanied rec' fillets.
smash
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 01/12/10
what would that achieve? He
what would that achieve? He didnt break the law by freighting fillets home. He took too much.
When you bring in silly rules like that it opens up other problems
example-you and your mates go on a trip up north (5 of you).
Driving home with 10 kg each (50kg), you stop overnight at Carnarvon/gero etc. Your tired and stay at the camp. Your mates go to the pub. Fisheries turn up.
Keep the rules simple, then no-one has an excuse.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8673
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Labelling
You have to have your name on your fish/ fillets so they can be identified so no excuse if you are caught with heaps and there are no names on them. Right whack!!!!
smash
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 01/12/10
thats right
and how it should be. I was replying to a suggestion above that a rule be brought in "no unaccompanied fillets".
Hairyone
Posts: 246
Date Joined: 26/12/09
Gday all,Being fairly new to
Gday all,
Being fairly new to WA I never knew about the 20kg rule and will have to read up on this . (not that I would want more than 20kgs anyway)
I carry a WA fish identification booklet, never take more than the bag limit, always measure my fish and have paid for every fishing licence on the list just incase i need it. (just thoght I would clear that up)
Im definately not sticking up for any twat that deliberately rapes and pillages our oceans but just want to clear a few things up.
Did this bloke get fined $40000 for not labeling his fish (putting his mates names on their catch) or is there a lot more to the story???
Does the bag limit follow the same rules? eg....
Last Friday, 4 of us went fishing....we caught 6 Mulloway.....rather than putting my two in the back of my car , my mate put them on the back of his ute ( with his two and his passengers two) and dropped them off for me. Would he have been in the shit for haveing more than the legal bag limit if he had been pulled over?
Also.....does bait come into the 20kg law? eg fish frames, mullet fillets etc.
Am I getting paranoid or has this bloke a known offender who has been watched for a while and busted and if my mate got caught would they have just followed him to my house and found me un packing my fishing gear and accepted that?
Cheers
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Lets just say that if there
Lets just say that if there really were 6 other guys that really existed and or didn't already have their own 20kg as well, and they were mates, they would have turned up in court.
Hairyone
Posts: 246
Date Joined: 26/12/09
Thats what I would have
Thats what I would have thought? Or surely the charter could have verified if all this fish was shared out?
Sounds like a known offender.
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
That as well, no doubt.
That as well, no doubt.
Shorty
Posts: 1549
Date Joined: 10/05/08
This fellow must be as happy
This fellow must be as happy as a dog with 2 tails at getting half the fine he was expecting,,the boys will be at the pub celebrating no doubt,,
I would strongly suggest the chap change the name of the boat tho,,
smash
Posts: 434
Date Joined: 01/12/10
some parts of these rules dont sit easy with me
The fine was actually only $750, it was the mandatory penalty that was $38K, I think its 10x the commercial value of the fish.
But-if he bashed a granny and stole her pension money and spent it on crack, he wouldnt have to pay it back at all, let alone 10x the value.
Ditto with someones uninsured car-not even reparation of the loss usually.
Why the difference?
Albee Mangles
Posts: 985
Date Joined: 20/05/08
Simple mate
Stocks of Grannies are healthy, we are actually overstocked in Australia.
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
I need a granny for baby
I need a granny for baby sitting duty, so if you got a spare one caught, then toss her my way...
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
marble
Posts: 778
Date Joined: 03/09/09
The difference is this wally
The difference is this wally basically stole from the whole population of the state, the fish belong to everyone. If they had of labeled it properly and all gone to collect it from the airport or even not been so bloody arrogant as to not even bother turning up in court then it might look better for them but because they where so blatantly in disregard for the rules I say f&%@ em . . .
I hope fisheries keep a good eye on him because rumour mill has it that when they charged him his attitude was "I`ll just pay the fine and go fishing again " If thats true then it says a fair bit about his and his mates mindset doesnt it ??
PMY 25 Centre Console DF300 Suzuki
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15654
Date Joined: 29/11/05
all done here
I think this one has been done and dusted now, everything that needs to be said has been. I'm going to close it up before this guy trys to make his money back from suing someone for slandering him (not that they have, just it 'may' occur if it continues)
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