Yeah have to agree bloody pricks they are, they have the power of descretion its one of their laws in the rules when they learn to become officers but they choose not to use it. I've had plenty of run ins with these idiots they don't care about the fishery none even fish, one time i had 400kg of fish on a commercial trip and every fish was pulled out in the sun for two hours and treated like footballs thrown all over the floor everywhere descaled,bruised and ice all melted the end result was i nearly could not sell my product and had to reduce the price and lost a lot of money.
But to rub salt into the wounds my mate put one moses perch in the esky that was right at the bottom that was caught during the night unnoticed but should have been fin clipped as my mate caught it he was fined $150 and i was also for being in charge of the vessel that made it $300 in total for one 200gram fish that if sold would have brought $1.
So i was down $300 on that fish plus $800 i lost on the other fish all for one moses which i have a leagle quota for anyway and can take 4 tonne a year leagly if the correct proceedures are followed.
The reason for these new coral fin fish laws are to prevent the illegal sale of fish by amatures but even if you do the right thing and have a massive quota if you don't dot your i's and cross your t's you get flogged also its beurocracy gone mad and its got nothing to do with government, fisheries make and break the rules their the ones responsible.