{"id":244667,"date":"2026-01-21T17:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T17:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244667\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T17:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T17:13:18","slug":"mccallum-brothers-investigated-by-doc-over-pakiri-protected-corals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244667\/","title":{"rendered":"McCallum Brothers investigated by DoC over Pakiri protected corals"},"content":{"rendered":"

DoC Border and Species Trade manager Ben Cornelius confirmed the company was being investigated for two alleged breaches of the Wildlife Act 1953<\/a>: taking or disturbing absolutely protected marine wildlife without authority; and failing to report accidental or incidental death or injury of marine wildlife.<\/p>\n

The stony corals<\/a> involved \u2013 kionotrochus suteri and sphenotrochus ralphae \u2013 are rare species found only along the northeast coast of Northland, including Pakiri and Bream Bay<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Their limited distribution and role as natural filter\u2011feeders make them ecologically significant. <\/p>\n

If proven, the first alleged offence carries penalties for companies of $800 to $300,000, depending on whether DoC pursues a criminal prosecution. Fines of $600 to $10,000 apply similarly to the second alleged offence.<\/p>\n

\"AboutAbout 1500 people joined forces at a protest last year against McCallum Bro’s Bream Bay sand mining proposal. Photo \/ Nigel Yellowlees<\/p>\n

McCallum Group\u2019s chief operating officer Shayne Elstob<\/a> acknowledged the allegations, saying they were made by a private party to DoC and had not been admitted by the company. <\/p>\n

\u201cMBL have responded to an enquiry from DoC about the allegation and at this stage has nothing further to add,\u201d Elstob said. <\/p>\n

The investigation comes at a critical time for McCallum Brothers, which is seeking Government approval through the Fast Track process <\/a>to extract more than 8 million cubic metres of sand from Bream Bay – a proposal drawing strong community and environmental opposition over risks to sensitive marine habitats. <\/p>\n

DoC would not comment further while the investigation remained active, but expected to confirm an outcome in the next few months.<\/p>\n

Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, covering a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years\u2019 experience in journalism, mostly as a court news reporter in Gisborne and on the East Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DoC Border and Species Trade manager Ben Cornelius confirmed the company was being investigated for two alleged breaches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[87543,74,20438,3595,1656,59978,12084,43713,22195,114803,2837,35200,12898,2747,2752,126,111,43,139,69,1523,143210,75525,2751,8238],"class_list":["post-244667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accusations","tag-after","tag-brothers","tag-by","tag-company","tag-coral","tag-corals","tag-disturbed","tag-doc","tag-dredging","tag-during","tag-investigated","tag-investigation","tag-mccallum","tag-mining","tag-native","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-pakiri","tag-protected","tag-sand","tag-under"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}