The rules say only seafood caught by a person with a valid commercial fishing permit can be sold legally.
Fishery officers regularly patrol the coastline to ensure the rules are being followed. Photo / Fisheries New Zealand
MPI director of fishery compliance Steve Ham says species caught included shellfish such as pāua, rock lobster (crayfish), kina, and oysters and finfish.
Ham says of the 26 people caught, one was charged, 21 received a non-prosecution outcome such as education or warning, and decisions are still in the pipeline on how to proceed with the four people suspected of acting illegally.
He says prosecution is reserved for serious cases or when “lesser interventions fail to change behaviour”.
Reeled in
Ham says compliance follows a graduated enforcement model starting with education and direction to help people understand the rules.
Then comes direction and enforcement, reserved for “more serious non-compliance”, met with warning notices, infringement fines and prosecution.
He says most issues are resolved through education.
Spooner’s illegal trading of recreational catch is one of several ways people can breach fishery rules and was detected through his online presence.
Others have been caught red-handed.
In 2024, Laongdao Phelps dug up more than 1000 cockles from an estuary during an afternoon fishing outing.
Her activity was seen by a fishery officer who NZME understands was on a routine inspection.
She was prosecuted and reminded by a judge at sentencing why what she had done was wrong.
“If everyone did that, we would not have any cockles left in our country,” Judge Jo Rielly told Phelps, who took eight times the daily limit and one pipi while digging up the shellfish from Delaware Bay in north Nelson.
She was fined $1200 for an offence that carries a maximum $20,000 fine.
In August, three people were stopped and 422 pāua taken from Kaikōura’s south coast were found inside their car.
Three people are facing serious charges after they were stopped in August and 422 pāua taken from Kaikōura’s south coast were found in their car. Photo / MPI
Fishery officers had stopped the car the day before and were trying to inspect the catch when the driver took off.
Of the hundreds of pāua recovered from the car the next day, 230 were undersized, Fisheries NZ said.
A couple of months later, in October, a pair of Gisborne fishers were found with 157 undersized pāua.
Fishery officers stopped the pair while doing catch inspections at Waihau Beach, also known as Loisels Beach, about 40km north of Gisborne.
Sprung by Facebook post
In February, Spooner and his mates went to Kaihoka, an area in the far northwest of Golden Bay where they dived for seafood.
Two days later he posted a picture of the catch to the Kai Basket NZ Facebook page via his personal profile.
Joshua Spooner has admitted charges after he and three mates went on a dive trip to the Kaihoka area near Farewell Spit in northwest Nelson in February. Image / Google Maps
He then set up another Facebook profile called Cray Cray to sell the seafood, taking care to ensure it was not linked to his “Josh Spooner” profile.
He knew it was illegal to sell recreational catch, MPI says in its summary of facts.
Spooner then advertised the crayfish for sale as “30 each, big ones 50″ with a photograph of a chiller bag containing six crayfish and a pick-up place in Richmond.
He received several responses, including one that told him he shouldn’t be doing it and gave him a copy of the rules.
He deleted the post, which had been up for about 15 minutes.
However, the summary of facts says Spooner then arranged to sell three crayfish for $110 to one of the people who had responded.
He offered to “throw in a crayfish tail for free”.
Spooner replied to a further 10-15 others who had responded, telling them he was “out of crayfish”, but might be able to get more and he had pāua instead, if they were interested.
One person showed an interest and Spooner offered them 18 pāua, but they eventually settled on four for $40.
Clandestine meeting in supermarket carpark
He arranged to meet the buyer in a supermarket carpark.
The next day, Spooner sold a cooked and vacuum-packed crayfish from his home to an associate for $40.
Later that day, on February 18, he drove to the same supermarket carpark with four pāua, three crayfish and one crayfish tail, planning to meet a buyer, but the transaction fell through when the buyer didn’t arrive.
Spooner left and drove to another location to deliver crayfish to a buyer. MPI said Spooner had arranged to deliver it to an unoccupied vehicle parked in a specific place and left unlocked.
He placed one cooked and vacuum-packed crayfish, two uncooked and frozen crayfish and one cray tail inside a chiller bag left in the vehicle.
Joshua Spooner’s catch. He pleaded guilty in the Nelson District Court to selling seafood without a commercial permit, after he and three mates went on a dive trip to a remote beach in northwest Nelson. Photo / MPI
The next day, fishery officers searched Spooner’s Richmond home and found evidence of his offending, including a cellphone, dive equipment and the chiller bag, which was the same as the one in the advertisement.
Spooner admitted during an interview having created the social media profile Cray Cray for the purpose of selling crayfish in circumstances he knew were illegal to sell.
Guilty plea in court
Spooner has admitted illegally selling seafood after the dive trip in February.
He was sprung after posting the catch to his Facebook page and then offering the seafood for sale on a different, specially set-up Facebook page.
The 31-year-old, who works as a deckhand, pleaded guilty in the Nelson District Court to three charges brought by MPI of possessing seafood for sale in breach of laws aimed at protecting stocks and a legitimate, high-value market.
The charge carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and/or a community-based sentence.
MPI told NZME the associates were not charged because Spooner was the person responsible for the offending he admitted, including selling his catch.
Spooner was a recreational fisher and did not have a commercial fishing permit.
Ways to break the rules
Other ways people break the rules include exceeding catch limits, fishing in marine reserves, improper tagging or failing to report catch.
NZME reported after a day out with fishery officers that in 2024, 431 people were issued with infringement notices nationwide for breaching fish and seafood size limits, while a further 30 were prosecuted. In the same timeframe, a further 257 infringements were handed out for breaching daily catch limits and 115 people were prosecuted.
Fishery officers say the most common excuse they hear is that people “don’t know the rules”.
MPI says New Zealand has a “serious problem” with the unlawful taking of rock lobster (crayfish) to service a large black-market trade.
It is described as a high-value species, making it “especially vulnerable to poaching”.
The ministry says because of the clandestine nature of poaching it’s not possible to accurately quantify illegal take, but it’s believed to be “significant”.
The haul of 422 pāua taken from Kaikōura’s south coast in August after fishery officers stopped a car and found the seafood. Three people are facing serious charges as a result. Photo / MPI
MPI says offenders such as Spooner might fish regularly, but usually did not exceed daily recreational catch limits.
But quantities taken over time were “substantially more” than any person or family could sensibly consume, with most of their catch sold illegally or traded on the black market.
MPI says there are also “significant health risks” when seafood product is not handled well and processed to approved standards.
Laws designed to protect resource
The fisheries regulator says laws ensure the resource remains sustainable through the quota management system.
MPI says commercial fishing is a highly regulated activity and legitimate operators incur considerable costs, including the purchase of annual catch entitlements, permit fees and taxes.
Commercial operators also have to abide by strict reporting rules to help ensure the viability of stocks.
The fisheries regulator, MPI, says laws ensure seafood resources remain sustainable through the quota management system. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson.
They also invested heavily in research into the rock lobster fishery and life cycle.
“Black-market traders, by operating outside the quota management system, incurred none of the costs, nor did they provide information about their fishing activities,” MPI says.
Spooner is due to be sentenced in March.
His ute and cellphone were forfeited and he faces a large fine.
MPI encourages people to report suspected illegal activity through the ministry’s 0800 4 POACHER number (0800 47 62 24). Download the free NZ Fishing Rules Mobile App for the latest rules in the area you intend to fish, including areas that are closed and gear restrictions for fishing.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.