Save money on a fishing licence? It cost one man big-time, says Fish & Game

Don’t be tempted to think that not buying a fishing licence – then trying to lie your way out of trouble – will save you some hard-earned money.

Eastern Fish & Game officer Anthony van Dorp says that “going down that path” has cost a Rotorua man over $1000 in the Rotorua District Court.

The 26 year-old appeared in court on Monday ( March 11, 2013), on two charges – fishing with no licence, and then giving false details.

Judge James Weir fined the offender $400 on each count, $800 in total, and also ordered him to pay prosecution and court costs.

Mr van Dorp says the penalties handed down reinforce the fact that fishing without a licence can turn into a very expensive exercise. And in this case the offender’s attempt to lie his way out of the fix compounded things, “costing him big-time.”

The cost of managing the region’s trout fisheries along with all the habitat work Fish & Game does for waterfowl and game bird hunting, has to be shared equally across all anglers and hunters, he says. “Fish & Game doesn’t receive any funding from Government and doesn’t make any profits, so everything gained from licences is put back into fish and game management – and this needs to be fairly shared.”

Mr van Dorp says Fish & Game officers have carried out angler checks throughout summer across the Rotorua lakes, and “it’s pleasing to have found the vast majority of anglers doing the right thing.”
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