Illegal Pipi Fishing Not Tolerated

[Ken A]

Two women and a man have been fined over $12,600 after being caught illegally harvesting pipis at Seven Mile Beach, near Gerroa, NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) announced today.

Glenn Tritton, DPI Manager, Fisheries Compliance, said the women, aged 31 and 33 from Canley Heights, and a 36-year-old man from Bonnyrigg were caught taking over 3000 pipis in November last year.

“Fisheries Officers saw the them removing pipis from the beach. When approached in the carpark, they had 3204 pipis, which were later returned to the beach,” Mr Tritton said.

”In NSW, anglers can only use pipis for bait, and it is an offence to remove them more than 50 metres beyond the high tide mark. There is also a bag limit of 50 pipis per angler.

Last week, all three defendants faced Nowra local court, and were fined a total of $12,200. They were also ordered to pay an additional $441 in court costs.

There are important health concerns relating to the consumption of recreationally harvested pipis. NSW Food Authority and NSW DPI have produced a fact sheet on recreationally harvested shellfish, which can be found at www.safefood.nsw.gov.au/fs-shellfish.htm.

There is a small commercial fishery for pipis in NSW. Tests are carried out to ensure commercially harvested pipis are safe to eat.

Anyone with information on illegal fishing activity is urged to contact their local Fisheries Office or call the Fishers Watch phone line on 1800 043 536.

[basic_fisho]

I put a report in a good while since about Anna Bay Pippies.I was up there before Christmas last year,and i dug for pippies,i could have filled a bucket in a very short time with some of the biggest pippies i have seen.Now a few years before that i had watched lots and lots of (people) with children heping them with buckets, taking pippies as small as my little finger nail.I am told by the locals up there that the authorities made an example of a number of the pippie gatherers and stopped the practice.the point is that given a fair go the pippies very quickly came good again.the people who took the chance at Gerroa(seven mile beach)

have got there just deserts. :-mad2

[Bashir]

I think the reason the book was thrown at them was because the case was heard in Nowra. Let''s face it, if some random knob is caught harvesting a commercial quantity of bream in the parra river, his case will probably be heard in burwood or somewhere similar. The magistrate there probably doesn''t give two shits about the parra river fishery nor have any knowledge about it. What do you all think about this? Its a shame that people like this exist. Pippies were a great feed till the wrong people found out about them.

Edited August 31, 2004 by Bashir

[Ken A]

I am 100% in favour of hitting people hard with large or maximum fines.

Start making examples of people breaking the law & word soon gets around that illegal practices won''t be tolerated.

I bet this lot will think twice before raping a beach of pippies again 12 grand = ouch

[fisho1]

finally a decent fine i wonder if they will pay it

so many time s iev heard of people being caught but they get fuc all penaltys why cause we have piss week judges enough said !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Markus]

I think these morons deserve the fine they got and full credit to fisheries for putting their foot down

but...

Sadly i dont think it''ll stop people continuing these stupid practices....Im sorry but there are people out there that are absolutley stupid... take the death penalty,

hasnt stopped people offending. $12000 lota money but sum people for sum reason would just love to part with it.

[Guest bluecod]

Ben,

Glad to hear the Anna/Stockton Beach pipis have recovered quickly :thumbsup: , but this is always not the case.

Many of you will probably recall there used to be vast cockle beds at Cronulla and also Swansea. These beds were raped [or rather eaten out] and have not recovered and probably never will :die: . Now anytime I come across a patch of cockles I don''t tell anybody.

[Grantm]

I hope the 12 grand is enough. Sure they have been caught, but how long have they been doing this prior to getting caught. Its very possible they have made several thousands of dollars out of this practice and 12 grand is only a pipis worth of money to them. Does the punishment fit the crime. The fines for pinching other marine species is a lot more.

At least they got caught which is good

[Wetpatch]

I tend to spend alot of of my family holidays at Anna bay and remmember standing at Buribi point on a Saturday arvo and looking at coach loads of a certain race of people digging up the beach by the end of the day she looked like the Normandy invasion in WW2 with all the holes and trenches left behind Im rapped in the new rule :grogon: :grogon:

Edited September 2, 2004 by WetPatch

[zeb00]

unfortunatly i had not heard about this fine untill i read this board although i had heard about the regulations reguarding pipis. most if not all of the people on boards like this one are very carefull to not only stick buy the fising regulatins but also make an effort not to impact these habitats in any way. i guess the point i am trying to make is there any point making an example out of these people if that message is not getting to the people who do this sort of thing. dont get me wrong i think the got what they deserve but should this have got more corerage in the public eye to get the point across. if did it and i just missed it?

im sure once i read over this it will make no sense so pleas bear with me.

[zeb00]

also do you need a fishing permit to colect pipis and if so we all need to take nitice of the phone number above and when we see things like WetPatch did we need to report it and maybe even to coach company and license plate to the athoritys as the people doing this may not know it is wrong but the tour guides should tell them before they get onto the beach