Mother summoned to court for helping her child cast fishing rod
A mother of two from Rolleston is questioning tough rules around freshwater fishing after experiencing what she views as heavy-handed enforcement by Fish & Game.
Nikola Murphy was on a boat with her two young daughters on Lake Brunner. The kids had got fishing rods from their grandparents for Christmas and decided to give them a go.
When her 6-year-old had trouble casting the rod, Murphy helped her. Then, a ranger from West Coast Fish & Game appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
“We were one of the only boats on the water; he must have been watching us through binoculars,” Murphy said.
Although Murphy’s children had freshwater fishing licences from Fish & Game, she didn’t, and so the ranger served her with an infringement notice.
“We said we would buy a licence on the spot, but he said it was too late. It was such a power trip.
“It’s not like we had a boatload full of trout. I highly doubt the kids would have caught a fish, we didn’t even have bait.”
Murphy said she was expecting to have to pay a fine but was shocked to receive a summons to the Greymouth District Court.
She was ultimately offered a diversion, if she agreed to pay $600 to Fish & Game.
Diversion is a scheme operated by the police, intended to allow some, often firsttime, offenders to take responsibility for their offending outside the court system and avoid getting a criminal record.
“I’ve never stolen, I’ve never done anything remotely illegal, now I have a diversion for casting a fishing line,” Murphy said.
While she felt that Fish & Game had been heavy handed, Murphy said it wasn’t feasible to challenge the allegations in court.
“It was going to cost more than $600 to stay in Greymouth and get lawyers.
‘‘It also wasn’t worth risking a conviction, because we want to travel overseas at some point.”
Murphy said the whole ordeal had put the children off fishing.
“Now they’re scared because they think mum will go to jail. ‘It was quite confronting for them at age 6 and 9.”
West Coast Fish & Game compliance co-ordinator Baylee Kersten said the ranger was just doing his job.
“They observed an angler casting and retrieving a lure, which requires them to have a licence, and they did not,” Kersten said.
“The person accepted the circumstances of the event at the time, completed the diversion process and the prosecution was withdrawn.”
Kersten said that Murphy’s family could have taken advantage of Fish & Game’s concession rate for a group family licence. It costs $198 for a season.
“Fish & Game enjoy seeing young anglers taking up the sport. We encourage the family to attend Fish & Game’s children’s instructional fishing event in the area in December.”