Undersized crabs, snapper and illegal net fishing among charges for trio caught with illegal Mandurah catches

Three fishers have found themselves on the hook for thousands of dollars in fines after fisheries officers caught them taking illegal catches from the waters around Mandurah.

None appeared in Mandurah Magistrates Court on Tuesday, instead sending in endorsed pleas of guilty.

Gregory Gringo Bulseco Quibol from Armadale was fined $3364 for taking undersize blue swimmer crabs and exceeding the daily bag limit.

The court was told during an inspection along the Coodanup foreshore on February 8 the 37-year-old was found with 43 blue swimmer crabs in his possession — well above the daily bag limit of 10.

All but one were under the permitted minimum size of 127mm.

Quibol was carrying a gauge, but when officers asked why he hadn’t used it, he replied that he wanted to catch crabs.

All crabs were returned to the water.

Magistrate Clare Cullen said it was a “selfish act” - something she added was awfully common in Mandurah.

In another case, fisheries officers found another recreational fisherman flouting demersal bans last year.

The court was told Dillon Waters had three pink snapper and a bald chin grouper when officers stopped his boat on September 4 last year - outside of the demersal fishing season in local waters.

The pink snapper was undersized, and the 39-year-old didn’t have a boat fishing licence.

In a letter to the magistrate, Waters applied for a spent conviction as he worked FIFO for a mining company, which was granted.

However, he was fined $1800.

In Coodanup in October last year, the court heard a third fisher, Clinton John Lees was net fishing in the Mariners Cove canals.

He admitted to catching two mullet in the net.

It is illegal to net fish in closed waters including rivers, estuaries, inlets and lakes, and it wasn’t the first time Lees had been caught by fisheries officers.

Lees was fined $839 and suspended his net fishing licence for a period of six months.