Shark net contractor fined $3500
A COMMERCIAL fisherman who unlawfully possessed a number of regulated fish, including tiger shark fins, was fined $3500 in Gympie Magistrates Court this week.
Employed in the government's shark control program, Sunshine Coast man Gregory Bruce Pearce, 40, pleaded guilty to 19 offences, including unlawfully possessing three undersized tailor, eight undersized school mackerel and four oversized shark fins from an animal bigger than 1.5m long.
Pearce also failed to lodge a monthly return to a commercial fishing log book, and failed to give all the information required via a sale docket.
In sentencing, Magistrate Chris Callaghan said Pearce had shown "a good deal of remorse" and by entering an early guilty plea had saved the people of Queensland a lot of money.
No conviction was recorded.
