The guilty plea in the Dunedin District Court yesterday comes after recent University of Otago research which suggests harvestable-sized paua in East Otago Taiapure has decreased from 14.7% in 2008-09 to 4.1% in 2016.
The study also concluded the daily bag limit of five per person had ‘‘failed'' to prevent a decline in paua stocks.
University of Otago agriculture and fisheries senior lecturer and East Otago Taiapure committee scientific adviser Chris Hepburn warned that because of the number of people harvesting paua, the area could be closed permanently.
‘‘That would be something that we would be very upset that we would have to do ... [but] the fish can absolutely disappear,'' Mr Hepburn said.
‘‘This poaching is a massive issue.
‘‘We have to do something.''
The Karitane Peninsula was already closed to the public for paua gathering and other areas had been closed in the past but that led to other issues, including directing everyone to the only available harvesting areas, which just concentrated the problem, Mr Hepburn said.
The relatively easy access to paua at Warrington Beach meant large numbers of people were gathering in the area, he said.
A second option being discussed was to only allow people wading to harvest paua and not those diving.
The Taiapure committee was set up to liaise with the Ministry for Primary Industries to control fishing stocks in the area and would consult the community about the issue, he said.
The research, led by Mr Hepburn, monitored 25 sites along the 22km coastline from Cornish Head to Potato Point.
It also found a decline in paua density, hampering the paua's ability to regenerate.
It could take five to six years - some growing at just 1mm per year - for paua to reach legal size, he said.
The problem was not lost on Ministry for Primary Industries Otago compliance manager Murray Pridham.
‘‘Legally-sized shellfish and paua has certainly declined over the years.
‘‘If people did abide by the regulations ... then it would lead to more sustainable fishing,'' Mr Pridham said.
Both cases of illegal harvesting were ‘‘extreme examples'' where people had ‘‘total disregard for the regulations'', he said.
Dunedin students Erin Uluvalu Ah-Yek (25) and Silei Matamua (29) each pleaded guilty in the district court yesterday to exceeding the legal daily limit of paua and taking paua below the minimum size of 125mm.
The summary of facts said Ah-Yek and Matamua were part of a group of six caught at Warrington Beach on December 22 last year with 396 paua, more than 13 times the legal daily limit.
Of the paua taken, 393 were undersized.
The pair admitted at the time they were gathering shellfish but said they were unaware of the limit, the court heard.
Ah-Yek told fisheries officers in an interview the following day that she did not know the rules while Matamua told officers she ‘‘knew there were daily limits but didn't really pay much attention to them''.
Both told fisheries officers they did not know how many paua they had each harvested.
The group, including Ah-Yek and Matamua, were given a copy of the rules and measuring tools for harvesting after the incident.
In the second incident at Warrington Beach on April 11, Ak-Yek and Matamua were stopped by fisheries officers again, this time with four children present, the court heard.
The pair initially denied gathering paua, the summary of facts said.
When fisheries officers inspected the vehicle they found 68 paua in a backpack and wrapped in a towel. The court heard 66 of those were undersized.
Ah-Yek told officers she believed the daily limit for the area was 10 and she was ‘‘sorry''.
Matamua admitted she knew the rules but did not use a measuring device and did not check how many paua they took.
The others involved in the incident on December 22, minister of religion Tualagi Polaia, also known as James Ah-Yek Polaia (51), meat workers Tao Tafa Polaia (39) and Taniela Drake (42), all of Dunedin, admitted one charge of exceeding the legal daily limit of paua.
They were remanded for sentence in Dunedin on May 25, along with Ah-Yek and Matamua.
Tualagi Polaia would be seeking a discharge without conviction.
Charges against Seki Ah-Yek (18), of Dunedin, were withdrawn, as she had returned to Samoa.
●In an unrelated prosecution, 47-year-old Dunedin sickness beneficiary Richard Neville Lloyd admitted taking more than nine times the daily limit of paua at Warrington Beach on February 3, most of them undersized.
Judge Kevin Phillips convicted Lloyd and fined him $600, court costs $130 for taking under-size paua. He sentenced Lloyd to 140 hours' community work and ordered confiscation of the diving gear for exceeding the daily limit.
