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Man harvested more than 100 protected shellfish

A Southland man has landed himself in court for the first time by harvesting more than 100 protected shellfish.

Vaisiliva Kaufononga, 56, appeared in the Invercargill District Court yesterday on one charge of breaching conditions on a customary authorisation and one of possessing more than 50 toheroa.

The Ministry for Primary Industries said toheroa were prohibited species and a taonga for local Māori that were managed under a customary permit system.

On November 9 the defendant was authorised to collect 30 of the shellfish by hand to eat at a birthday celebration at Queens Park.

Later that day, Kaufononga texted an associate saying: "please come to the beach so we can dig for some toheroa after work ... Quick as, only 60 toheroas".

A member of the public saw the defendant at Oreti Beach gathering the shellfish with a small garden trowel.

This was contrary to the authorisation from local kaitiaki, which stated they must be harvested by hand.

The next day, the toheroa were dropped to Chilled Freight Ltd in Invercargill.

Kaufononga informed the staff that the two poly-bins, addressed to a relative in Christchurch, contained frozen fish.

A lid fell off one of the containers, leading workers to notice the fresh toheroa and advise fisheries officers.

They came to inspect the packages and located 116 of the endangered shellfish inside.

When interviewed by the officers the defendant said he took extra because he did not think the authorised amount would be enough.

He said he used a tool for harvesting because his hands hurt and he did not inform the kaitiaki he would send the toheroa to Christchurch, as if he did the permit might not have been issued.

Court documents said: "when people take more than they should this undermines the validity of the data being used to manage the resource, it also breaches the trust the local kaitiaki are placing in people when sharing their taonga with people".

Counsel Scott Williamson said the defendant’s behaviour was "very shameful".

"He intends to ... apologise directly to the people who granted him the permit," he said.

Judge Duncan Harvey accepted Kaufononga’s remorse but took into account he had not pleaded guilty until a formal proof hearing yesterday.

"There is a real danger that if [toheroa] is overfished, we will lose it forever," the judge said.

He sentenced the defendant to 120 hours’ community work and ordered him to pay solicitor’s fees of $700.

felicity.dear@odt.co.nz