A former director of All Weather Fishing Company was sentenced to 16 months in jail by the Auckland District Court on June 19.
Glen Owen Wright was sentenced on a representative charge under the Fisheries Act for failing to prevent illegal fishing by his company, as well as for obstructing a fishery officer.
According to Fisheries New Zealand, the company illegally caught and landed nearly 15 tonnes of snapper, along with smaller quantities of kahawai and grey mullet.
Steve Ham, the agency's director of fisheries compliance, stated that the company did not have the required quota to legally catch the fish and failed to report the catch.
The agency said the sentencing marks the end of a compliance investigation that had previously prosecuted others involved in the trade of the illegally caught fish.
In August 2024, an Auckland-licenced fish receiver, Sea World, was fined $360,000 for illegally supplying fish to other seafood companies. In the same case, an employee was jailed for three years and seven months, while a former director was sentenced to twelve months of home detention for their roles in the offence.