MikeB4: She got what she deserved, she was greedy and taking from the present and the future.

Aredwood: Boats and vehicles that are used for illegal fishing have always been forfeited to the crown if you get caught. If she had used a $500 bomb of a car to collect shellfish in she would have only lost that.

Got no problem with her loosing that Audi though.

This has got me thinking - drink drive penalties should be increased to: Forfeit the car you were driving in if caught. And if it is not your car - A fine of the value of that car added onto the original punishment / fine for drink driving.


[edited to add]

Then there are these 2. $40,000 fine for not wearing a helmet on a quad bike and $5,000 fine for doing illegal gasfitting that causes a gas explosion that kills someone.

Geektastic:

Yes. My point is as much the fact that placing human beings at risk apparently gains you an easy ride when compared to placing small and generally unpleasant to eat cockles at risk. Besides which, many cockles will continue to live in places not accessible to human beings, so to suggest that harvesting them from the relatively few areas humans go is somehow likely to cause oceanic collapse is a bit unlikely.

I completely agree that the vehicles of drink drivers should be seized at the roadside and sold to fund policing. If they want the car they can buy it back at auction.

Geektastic:

Aredwood: Boats and vehicles that are used for illegal fishing have always been forfeited to the crown if you get caught. If she had used a $500 bomb of a car to collect shellfish in she would have only lost that.

Got no problem with her loosing that Audi though.

This has got me thinking - drink drive penalties should be increased to: Forfeit the car you were driving in if caught. And if it is not your car - A fine of the value of that car added onto the original punishment / fine for drink driving.


[edited to add]

Then there are these 2. $40,000 fine for not wearing a helmet on a quad bike and $5,000 fine for doing illegal gasfitting that causes a gas explosion that kills someone.

Yes. My point is as much the fact that placing human beings at risk apparently gains you an easy ride when compared to placing small and generally unpleasant to eat cockles at risk. Besides which, many cockles will continue to live in places not accessible to human beings, so to suggest that harvesting them from the relatively few areas humans go is somehow likely to cause oceanic collapse is a bit unlikely.

I completely agree that the vehicles of drink drivers should be seized at the roadside and sold to fund policing. If they want the car they can buy it back at auction.

surfisup1000:

Geektastic:

Yes. My point is as much the fact that placing human beings at risk apparently gains you an easy ride when compared to placing small and generally unpleasant to eat cockles at risk. Besides which, many cockles will continue to live in places not accessible to human beings, so to suggest that harvesting them from the relatively few areas humans go is somehow likely to cause oceanic collapse is a bit unlikely.

I completely agree that the vehicles of drink drivers should be seized at the roadside and sold to fund policing. If they want the car they can buy it back at auction.

There are plenty examples of shellfish colonies collapsing in NZ waters. 

Cockles are more popular than you may think. I've seen large groups of people gathering them at times. 

MikeB4: She got what she deserved, she was greedy and taking from the present and the future.

MikeB4: It was not like she had just a few over, she had 1,162 Cockles, 183 Whelks and  960 Oysters. A daily limit for Cockles is 50. Rock Oysters and Whelks and combined limit of 50 other shellfish per day.

DarthKermit: The moral of the story? She shoulda been caught with a cheap, crappy car. Like the one my neighbour is trying to sell for $1200.

Geektastic: Sorry but in no sane world is collecting too many shellfish worth a fine of $130,000 when driving 4 times over the limit probably won't get you $1000 fine.

I'm not suggesting the shellfish fine was too high - I'm suggesting that all the other ones are way too low.

MikeB4:

Geektastic:

Dratsab: Would this not happen in the UK? 

We buy food in shops there - we largely gave up living off the land as we moved into the 20th century.....

So all those people you see collecting mushrooms etc in the English country or gathering shellfish in the estuaries or fishing are just imaginary.

DarthKermit: The moral of the story? She shoulda been caught with a cheap, crappy car. Like the one my neighbour is trying to sell for $1200.