{"id":425061,"date":"2026-05-13T05:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/425061\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T05:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:12:14","slug":"man-took-486-paua-from-reserve-near-kaikoura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/425061\/","title":{"rendered":"Man took 486 p\u0101ua from reserve near Kaik\u014dura"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Christchurch man has been sentenced to four months’ home detention after illegally taking 486 p\u0101ua from a marine reserve near Kaik\u014dura with the intention of selling it. <\/p>\n

Bruce Honey Tata, 48, was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court on Monday following a prosecution by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). <\/p>\n

Fisheries New Zealand\u2019s regional manager south Garreth Jay said Tata and his son Biyhan, 28, took the p\u0101ua from Hikurangi Marine Reserve, where taking shellfish is prohibited. <\/p>\n

A fishery officer on patrol saw the two men hiding a sack containing p\u0101ua behind a concrete barrier. <\/p>\n

Police and Fisheries New Zealand later stopped a vehicle Tata was in, recovering the p\u0101ua. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The two men hid a sack containing p\u0101ua behind a concrete barrier. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Jay said Tata and his son had stolen the p\u0101ua, 159 of which were undersize, with the intention of illegally selling them. <\/p>\n

“While Bruce Tata claimed the p\u0101ua was being gathered for a social event, we found electronic evidence of p\u0101ua sales. Neither of these men held a fishing permit to sell seafood,\u201d Jay said. <\/p>\n

“Fishery officers have zero tolerance for this behaviour, which threatens the sustainability of this important shared resource.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tata was sentenced on one charge under the Fisheries Act, with the court also ordering he attend and complete an appropriate Tikanga programme or counselling. <\/p>\n

Tata’s son Bihyan was sentenced in March to five months’ community detention for his part in the offending, which was diving for the p\u0101ua.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Christchurch man has been sentenced to four months’ home detention after illegally taking 486 p\u0101ua from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[158,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-425061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425061","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=425061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}