A Queenstown hotelier made a string of false claims, after the business's luxury "heli-crayfish experience" caught the attention of fisheries officers, documents show.
Rees Management Limited, which trades as The Rees Hotel, was fined $22,000 in July for and failing to keep records.
Company chief executive Mark Rose was discharged without conviction.
Guests paid between $4650-7750 to fly to a remote location in Fiordland or the West Coast, and watch a diver, who had been paid $800 cash, take the maximum recreational limit of six crayfish, while they were entertained with crayfish facts and photo opportunities.
Back at the hotel, for another $100 each, the guests would enjoy the crayfish as part of a two, three or four-course evening meal.
According to a summary of facts released to RNZ by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) under an Official Information Act request, the hotel organised at least six heli-crayfishing trips in 2021 and 2022, after it was warned that the experience breached the Fisheries Act.
Rose falsely told Fisheries New Zealand that divers were not paid for the trips, that they dined alongside guests and that three uninvoiced crayfish tails found in the hotel's freezer were a gift dropped off by a "mate".
Both Rose and Fisheries New Zealand declined to comment to RNZ.
According to the summary of facts, the heli-crayfish experience first caught the attention of Fisheries New Zealand in 2021.
District team leader and fishery officer Ian Henderson wrote...
A Queenstown hotelier made a string of false claims, after the business's luxury "heli-crayfish experience" caught the attention of fisheries officers, documents show. Rees Management Limited, whic...