A rāhui is in place as locals and iwi in the Coromanel town of Tairua are aggrieved at huge numbers of pink maomao being hauled from the ocean by rogue fishermen.
The Ministry for Primary Industries is calling for calm however, as anger rises over the fishing of the species, also known as longfin perch, which some locals presume is being sold illegally.
Video footage released this week shows boats coming in with chilly bins full of the fish.
There is no catch limit on pink maomao but locals fear the fish are being sold for profit, which is illegal.
Mike Bhana filmed fishermen hauling in thousands of the fish at Tairua harbour and says it's not a one off catch.
“The locals here have been seeing it going on for the last three months. On the Thursday we would have seen 12 boats involved,” Bhana told 1 NEWS.
‘If you work that out, there's probably 2500 fish came out of here on one day.”
Some local fishers are furious.
“I don't like it, I think it's disgusting, show some more respect to the fisheries and our oceans, simple as that,” a local told 1 NEWS.
Scott Lee from the Tairua Fishing Club called it “unadulterated greed”.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) says it understands if locals are upset.
But the Director of Compliance at MPI is calling for calm.
“We're not just paying lip service to their concerns, we hear the concerns and we are taking a serious look at it,” Gary Orr says.
The local iwi has already acted, last night placing a rāhui or ban, over pink maomao in the Tairua area.
Coromandel locals say with the numbers of fish being caught they're almost certainly ending up on a black market in Auckland. They also want the Government to introduce limits, so people can't take as many of the fish as they want.
MPI says it will follow up and some could face fines of up to $250,000 for illegally selling fish.
Fisheries Minister David Parker has also seen the footage saying on the face of it, “it looks greedy”.
He says officials tell him "the rules around bag limits are out of date and need fixing” - he's asked for advice "on how we do that”.
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