Fish and Game is urging anglers to buy their licences in time for the start of the fishing season on October 1 to avoid being fined.
Otago Fish and Game officer Paul van Klink said rangers carried out more than 1000 licence checks a season on average and the Lakes area had the worst compliance rate in Otago.
More than half the 93 infringements in the past two years were in the Queenstown, Wanaka and Cromwell area, he said.
‘‘There were quite a few tourists who got caught last year, when they know they’re supposed to have a licence.’’
The Otago region had a ‘‘quite a good presence’’ of rangers there being two full-time and six honorary rangers, Mr van Klink said.
The 2017-18 season fishing licences were now on sale and could be obtained via the Fish and Game website or from local sports stores, he said.
by Kerrie Waterworth
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Comments
1000 license checks per season for 2 full time staff and 4 volunteers is less than a token effort for compliance in my opinion.
What is the penalty for fishing without a license? How long does it take an officer to check a license?
As stated in article approx 10% of fishers checked did not have a license. Couldn't an increased effort in checks be quite a revenue earner (both from violation fines and increased adherence to license purchasing due to increase risk of getting caught)?
For my license cost of ~ $100 per year I have never encountered a fish and game officer - I believe in doing the right thing, BUT from a cost/benefit analysis I am wasting my money buying a trout license to go fishing.