Adelaide magistrate finds Aboriginal men guilty of poaching abalone at Point Pearce on Yorke Peninsula

FIVE Aboriginal men who took 370 abalone from the waters of Point Pearce were poaching, not fulfilling traditional obligations, a court has ruled.

FIVE men who took 370 abalone from the waters of Point Pearce were poaching, not fulfilling traditional obligations, a court has ruled.

The Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday found the men guilty of breaching state fisheries law, saying they had no defence under Federal native title legislation.

Prosecutors have asked Phillip Lincoln Timothy Dudley, Greg Wanganeen, Edgar Wanganeen, Robin Grant Wanganeen and Scott O’Loughlin be jailed for their crime.

They also want the men fined $24,950 each and permanently banned from fishing for abalone — penalties defence counsel say will wrongly sever their ties with their heritage.

“That sort of fine is designed for offenders with commercial income, and that is not the case here,” Garen Truscott, for the men, said.

“This would be an almost insurmountable penalty for young men with their lives ahead of them ... it would be a burden on their future.

“(The ban) would have a grave impact upon their lives, causing them to miss normal community interactions and festivals.”

Dudley, 29, of Burton, the Wanganeens — 28, 25 and 21, all of Point Pearce — and O’Loughlin pleaded not guilty to trying to sell, purchase or possess a prescribed aquatic resource.

At trial, prosecutors alleged they were caught aboard a dinghy with 370 Greenlip abalone (haliotis laevigata), weighing 44kg, in a sack in December 2011.

They alleged 188 of the abalone were “undersized”, weighing less than 113 grams, and that the total haul was 37 times the legal limit.

The group, however, claimed they were fishing for reasons to do with their Narungga culture, and to feed their families, and were not “raping and pillaging the sea”.

On Thursday, Magistrate Cathy Deland said she had no doubt each man had the right, under Native Title law, to fish for abalone.

The quantity taken, however, satisfied her beyond reasonable doubt that the men’s intention in taking so many abalone was commercial, not cultural.

Ms Deland said even with the men’s traditional obligation to share their catch with their community, the abalone taken that day was more than could be eaten.

She said Greg Wanganeen’s claim that Point Pearce would experience a population surge over the Christmas break, necessitating more abalone, was not supported by evidence.

Michael Manetta, prosecuting, said abalone were worth $115 per kilogram to retailers “and a higher amount on the black market”.

“Their purpose was to steal this resource just before New Year’s and make a good deal of money,” he said.

“They were not fishing for the heck of it, they were stealing in the hope of selling to the black market.”

Ms Deland issued arrest warrants for Dudley and O’Loughlin, who failed to attend court, and remanded the case for sentencing next month.