A request for fish dumping reports to go public was first refused by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), so it was refined to 14 reports, but still remains unanswered. Photo: NZ HeraldA group of academics says a government agency holds more than 100 reports into alleged fish dumping and catch misreporting but is refusing to make them public. ‘‘[MPI] is still refusing to release internal reports relevant to our ongoing research, many detailing the ministry’s own investigations into reporting and dumping,’’ they wrote. The report by Michael Heron QC was completed last year, and found the MPI had chosen not to prosecute local fishing captains who were caught on CCTV cameras dumping healthy-sized fish. Mr Heron looked at three separate investigations into dumping in 2003, 2012 and 2013, known as Operation Overdue, Operation Achilles and Operation Hippocamp.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 03, 2017 20:15 UTC