The Royal New Zealand Navy has made another significant fisheries bust off the coast of Fiji.
The crew on the HMNZS Hawea caught a vessel fishing illegally for the second time in the space of just a few weeks.
The vessel, called Best Fisher, has had a run-in with the Kiwis before. It's the second time the New Zealand Navy has caught the skipper of this vessel fishing illegally.
Just last month, it was caught doing the same thing - fishing without a permit and without a licence.
"It's likely their catch will be seized and their fishing equipment and possibly their boat as well," says Sub-Lieutenant Julian Grimmett.
When brought back to port, the Navy found chillers containing 144 kilograms of illegally caught barracuda and giant trevally.
On the dock, the vessel's owner, Ajay Raj, turned up and accepted there was no excuse, saying he understood his behaviour was illegal.
"He knows the person that is the licence holder needs to be on board, so it's a blatant infringement of the licence conditions. I would say he's just trying to get away with it, basically," Sub-lieutenant Grimmett says.
But for the meantime, Raj's vessel's going nowhere, and it's just one of many illegal fishers being stopped in its tracks by the crew aboard the Hawea.
Newshub.
