Selling Native Fish...

[Dixon1990]

Dear Aaron,

Thanks for reporting the listing for:

The Trade Me Customer Support Team have reviewed the listing and has deemed that it is in breach of our terms and conditions. As a result the listing has been removed from the site.

Thank you for bringing this listing to our attention and making Trade Me a better place to buy and sell.

Happy trading,

[Aaron-Betta]

haha, I got the same message, same name too

[Dixon1990]

:lol: Isnt that weird that you got it addressed to me? :roll: :lol:

[Ghaz]

just thought i'd let everyone know i got an email from michael lake, at DOC:

________________________________________

From: Michael Lake [mailto]

Sent: Tuesday, 18 November 2008 4:25 p.m.

To: Ghazali Ali

Cc: Bronwyn Bell; Enquiries

Subject: selling of bullies

Hi Ghazali,

You enquiry regarding the selling of native bullies has been forwarded to me. While there are a number of controls on how native fish may be taken from the wild, released into the wild or transferred between islands of New Zealand it is not actually illegal to sell native fish. It is irrelevant whether the fish would be able to survive in the wild or not as it is illegal to release them without an appropriate permit from DOC or the Ministry of Fisheries. I hope this clarifies the situation for you.

Regards

Mike Lake

Technical Support Officer (Freshwater)

Kai Mātanga Taonga Wai Maori

Department of Conservation. Waikato Conservancy, Private Bag 3072, Hamilton. Ph 07 858 1031, Fax 07 858 1001 or EXT 6031

[Stella]

I got something remarkably similar today too:

_____________________

Hi Stella,

While there are a number of controls on how native fish may be taken

from the wild, released into the wild or transferred between islands of

New Zealand it is not actually illegal to sell native fish. It is

illegal to release them without an appropriate permit from DOC or the

Ministry of Fisheries. I hope this clarifies the situation for you.

Regards

Natasha

Natasha Grainger

Senior Technical Support Officer

Freshwater Research & Development Group

Department of Conservation

__________________________

This is very frustrating as this lady and another DOC person helped me with the legalities for my book, and at least my understanding of the wording was that you could not sell them. Sigh. The whole area is remarkably complex.

Am replying to her for more clarification as I really need to be sure on this stuff for the book.

Sorry for accidentally misleading everyone

:oops:

[Ghaz]

yeah more info would be good, i always thought it was illegal even before i heard of this site so its not just you.

im sure some species at least it would have to be illegal... wouldn't it.

are eels classed as fish? cos don't u need a permit for them...

im very confused now. better get back to work before i blow too many brain cells...

[Stella]

I will definitely keep people informed with what I find out.

It is funny how eels are not really thought of as fish! Yes they are fish, even though you often see reference to 'fish and eels' as if they were different.

There ARE differences in how the law covers eels, but that is really only because they are a commercially and non-commercially harvested fish, with their own set of peculiarities (like whitebait).

From what I used to understand :roll: anyone could catch and eat an eel, but only commercial eelers with appropriate quota/license could sell them, and they have to sell them to people with a license to receive them.... DOC also told me that you can take eels non-commercially from conservation land, but who knows now....

Sigh, I think I blew a bunch of brain cells before I got up this morning. Would be nice to have a little less to stress about. Anyone want to employ me?