Wellington, April 9 NZPA - A Maori leader caught poaching trout from Lake Taupo says local iwi should be given customary rights to take fish.

Raniera Morehu, 55, was fined $900 after pleading guilty in Taupo District Court yesterday to charges of fishing without a licence, taking seven trout caught using a net, and exceeding the daily limit of three trout, The Dominion Post reported.

The court was told when Morehu, a Corrections Department iwi liaison officer, was confronted by rangers on January 17, he said he knew it was illegal to use a net but his hapu had asked him to gather food.

After the hearing Morehu said local iwi should be allowed to take trout as a customary right.

He said customary fishing rights for whanau could be sustainable and poaching would continue unless a solution was found.

Morehu was one of eight people who appeared in court yesterday on charges of illegally netting trout in three separate incidents.

Seven other men pleaded guilty to gill-netting 49 trout in the Waimarino Stream, a tributary of Lake Taupo, while it was closed for spawning in September last year and were remanded for sentencing in June.

NZPA