Two men have been fined almost $4,000 for illegally netting whitebait in a tributary of the Inglis River in Tasmania’s north-west.
Wynyard men Darren Robert Jarvis and Stephen Maurice Connlley were found to have caught over three kilograms of whitebait in the river on two separate occasions, as reported by The Advocate.
Both pleaded guilty to offences including taking whitebait without a license and possession of the fish in the Burnie Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
Connlley received a fine of $1,629, while Jarvis was fined $2,172.
The Inland Fisheries Service told the paper whitebait poaching was a persistent issue in the north-west, saying annual compliance operations were regularly undertaken to find and charge offenders.
“The [IFS] undertakes targeted compliance operations each year in spring, during their migration, with a small number of offenders convicted in court most years,” they said.
“Whitebait is a vulnerable fishery in Tasmania that was over-fished in the 1940s until being closed by regulation in 1974 and re-opened on a limited recreational basis in 1990.”
“The management of the whitebait fishery is a high priority to the IFS, with illegal poaching activities having the potential to seriously jeopardise its ongoing sustainability.”
