Mainland Yabby Importer Fined $6,000

The person at the centre of the case last August relating to the recovery by Inland Fisheries Service inspectors of a number of mainland yabbies and mussels from the edge of Great Lake has been charged and fined $6,000.

James Michael Pearse (46 years) of Tomingley in NSW appeared in the Launceston Magistrates Court on 16 June 2010 and pleaded guilty to charges of importing fish without authority, conveying controlled fish and to possessing fish near inland waters without authority, under the Inland Fisheries Act 1995.

The Court heard that the offences were detected on 27 August 2009, when Liawenee based Inland Fisheries Inspectors received information that a group of fisherman were in possession of yabbies and mussels at Great Lake.

As a result of this information, an interstate vehicle (with boat and trailer) was intercepted, searched, and the defendant found in possession of yabbies and mussels. He also admitted to disposing the yabbies and mussels on the shore of Great Lake.

The defendant was charged with importing 43 yabbies of the species Cherax destructor, which is a controlled fish under the Inland Fisheries Act 1995 and 19 freshwater mussels of the species Velesunio ambiguus by bringing them into Tasmania via the Spirit of Tasmania.

The importation of controlled fish into Tasmania represents a significant bio-security risk. The Act provides powers to protect the State’s inland waters from undesirable aquatic pest fauna because of the ecological and environmental risks and the high costs of managing or controlling aquatic pests in the community.

Cherax destructor represents a risk to other endemic or important aquatic plants and animals.  The species is implicated in the destabilisation of earthen farm dam walls and could potentially alter important ecological aquatic weed beds, and impact on water quality, aquatic invertebrates, threatened species as well as affecting the ecological balance of inland waters.

The ecological risks of the introduction and establishment of the freshwater mussel Velesunio ambiguus are competition with native freshwater mussels, hybridization and the risks of incidental introductions of pathogens and parasites.