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Undersized bugs prove costly for Bay fisherman Gympie Times
CLEANING Moreton Bay Bugs on the back of his trawler and possession of undersize bugs cost Tin Can Bay trawler operator Kevin Bostock $700 in Gympie Magistrates Court yesterday after he pleaded guilty to two offences.
The court was told Mr Bostock was charged after a fisheries inspector spoke to him on his trawler, while it was docked at Cairns in December 2003.
It heard the bugs were found on a pallet packed for delivery home for Christmas celebrations with family and friends. The frozen undersize bugs numbered 28 in total and all but two were within one and two millimetres of the legal size 0175mm across the shell.
Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries solicitor Miss G. T. Mallan sought a substantial fine for the offence quoting previous fines in the tens of thousands for breaches but of greater magnitude.
Defence solicitor Michael Garrahy argued successfully that the catch seized by fisheries inspectors was never destined for market and was for personal use, having been packed in such away.
He said Mr Bostock, 54, a commercial fisherman for 39 years, had co-operated fully with fisheries inspectors and told them he had cleaned the bugs on the back deck of his trawler while tied up in port.
Mr Garrahy said the trawler operator believed he was lawfully able to process the product in this way while in port as he had all the necessary Commonwealth Government AQJS processing licence.
However, though the licence allowed processing and storage on board the Commonwealth licence was in conflict with State legislation that did not allow such processing to happen.
Mr Garrahy said if Mr Bostock and his deckhand had stepped onto the dock and removed the bug meat from its shell instead of on the back of the trawler no offence would have taken place.
The court was told that when the4nspectors called on December 1,2003, two pallets of product were packed for distribution, one for commercial sale the other for home use.
The home-use pallet was the one from which the problem arose, Mr Garrahy said.
He said the inspectors found 28 Moreton Bay Bugs they deemed to be undersize, two being 5mm undersize the rest within 1mm and 2mm of legal size.
In fining Mr Bostock Magistrate Ms Bernadette Callaghan said she took into account all the submissions made by Mr Garrahy and the impact that changing regulation was having on the viability of the industry and fishermen surviving.
She also ordered no conviction be recorded and that the product be returned to Mr Bostock despite DPI Fisheries seeking its forfeiture.
Mr Garrahy told the court that by regulation the product should have been returned to Mr Bostock after six months if a prosecution had not been started and this did not happen until September 2004, 10 months after the alleged offence.