Fishery officers had retrieved illegally set crayfish pots in Tokomaru Bay, off North island’s east coast. But the driver of the commercial fishing vessel abused and rammed them. Ministry of Fisheries national operations manager Ross Thurston informed that the two officers were carrying out a routine pot-lifting patrol in their 5.9-metre vessel, Te Tiaki, when they were rammed twice by a 7.5-metre commercial crayfish vessel.
According to the information released by the fisheries officials that the incident caused no injury to that two officers but this type of attitude and behaviour on the water, the full force of Fisheries, police and maritime law will be invoked. Even other commercial fishers said that such incident was out of blue.
The Te Tiaki was loaded with the illegal pots and due to return to shore to offload the gear at the time. The officers estimated that the commercial vessel had been travelling at between 15 and 20 knots immediately before it struck their boat. A man is due to appear in Gisborne District Court on Wednesday charged with assault with a fishing vessel.
