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 last week 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 a protected species and were managed under a customary permit system.
On November 9, kaitiaki authorised the defendant to collect 30 of the shellfish by hand to eat at a birthday celebration at Queens Park.
A member of the public saw the defendant at Oreti Beach gathering the shellfish with a trowel, contrary to the authorisation.
The next day, the toheroa were dropped to Chilled Freight Ltd in Invercargill.
But workers advised fisheries officers, who inspected the packages and found 116 toheroa.
The defendant told the officers he took extra because he did not think the authorised amount would be enough.
He said he did not inform the kaitiaki he would send the toheroa to Christchurch, as if he did the permit might not have been issued.
Counsel Scott Williamson said the defendant’s behaviour was ‘‘very shameful’’.
Judge Duncan Harvey sentenced the defendant to 120 hours’ community work and ordered him to pay solicitor’s fees of $700.
‘‘There is a real danger that if [toheroa] is overfished, we will lose it forever,’’ the judge said.
