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The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is investigating after nearly a dozen kingfish were dumped in the Mahurangi River last month.
They were discovered by 12-year-old Lockie O’Neill on his way home from Mahurangi College on February 14. He was crossing the overbridge on State Highway 1, near Shoesmith Street, when he spotted the fish. At first the young fisherman thought the big fish below was alive and was keen to catch it, but then realised it was floating.
It wasn’t until he returned with his grandmother, Stef Railey, that they discovered more dead fish, counting 11 altogether on both sides of the bridge.
Stef says they were illegally dumped, as kingfish do not live in freshwater or swim that far upstream. She says they were over the 75cm legal limit, were bloated and had not been filleted. The pale colour and no scales indicated they had been in the water for days.
Stef has been fishing for 30 years and running RnR Charters in Mangawhai for 20 years, but has never seen that amount of fish dumped.
“I’m disgusted and shocked that people think it’s okay to catch and waste them, and pollute our waterways,” Stef says.
She guessed someone was over quota or the fish had gone off in the heat. The recreational limit per person for kingfish is three a day.
MPI Upper North Island Fisheries Compliance team manager Stephen Rudsdale says they only found two kingfish in an advanced state of decomposition. It was not clear if the others had been removed or washed away.
“It is unusual to have fish dumped in this manner and it is difficult to understand why anyone would do so,” Stephen says.
He says based on the location it was unlikely to be a commercial fish dumping.
“It just wouldn’t make sense for a commercial fisher to land the fish from his vessel and then travel along the road and dump them. However, we don’t know at this stage and we are continuing to investigate.”
Anyone with any information can contact MPI on 0800 47 62 24.
Also, unwanted fish can be given away at freefishheads.co.nz
