A woman who dug up more than 1000 cockles from an estuary during an afternoon fishing outing has been reminded by a judge why it was wrong.

“If everyone did that, we would not have any cockles left in our country,” Judge Jo Rielly told Laongdao Phelps, who took eight times the daily limit, and one pipi while digging up the shellfish from Delaware Bay in north Nelson.

Her lawyer said Phelps got “carried away” doing something she was used to doing in her native Thailand. She has now been fined $1200 for an offence that carried a maximum $20,000 fine.

The 38-year-old truck driver, who has been in New Zealand for 10 years, admitted a charge of taking more than the daily limit of cockles during an afternoon off from work on October 9 last year.

The area from Delaware Bay south to Glenduan in Tasman Bay became a taiāpure (traditional fishery reserve) in 2002 and was managed by a committee of iwi, community and marine group representatives. It also had significant ecological values and is an important spawning area for fish.

Delaware Bay, North Nelson. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee

The Ministry for Primary Industries said in the summary of facts that cockles were endemic to New Zealand and played a vital role in the health of marine ecosystems. They were also an important link in the food web.

MPI said the mudflats from where the shellfish were taken were relatively small and that taking a large number of cockles could have a “significant impact” on the ecosystem that relied on them.

Phelps’ activity that day was seen by a fishery officer, who NZME understands was on a routine inspection, and who spoke with her on-site when she admitted having collected the 1185 cockles (and one pipi) but had not counted them.

The daily limit for cockles in the area was 150 per person.

Phelps admitted she knew this, having read the information signs in the area, and had taken a photo of them previously as a reminder.

MPI prosecutor Julie Wotton said it was a point difficult to reconcile that Phelps was “fully aware” of the daily limit but took the amount she did.

“I’m not sure if that’s a testament to her honesty or not,” Wotton said.

“This was a huge amount taken in full knowledge of the limit.”

Defence lawyer Kyle Simonsen said Phelps had grown up in Thailand gathering food with her family, and had simply “got lost” in the exercise.

“She was doing something that was part of her lifestyle,” he said.

Simonsen said while it had not been outlined in the summary of facts, the shellfish had been returned to the mudflats, although it was only speculative as to whether that had been successfully re-bedded.

He said Phelps was remorseful and had taken the matter seriously including that she had taken on community work in the field of indigenous biodiversity before today’s sentencing in the Nelson District Court.

“She has done everything she can to make this right,” he said.

Judge Rielly said it was concerning behaviour of its kind and hoped that Simonsen had explained to Phelps the reason why daily limits existed.

“This is to ensure sustainability. When people take excessive amounts, which in your case you did, you threaten the sustainability of particular species of fish,” she said.

Phelps was given credit for her guilty plea, and to acknowledge the stress she had endured in the year waiting for a resolution, plus further credit for the community work she had done.

“You have given back to the community and acknowledged you have done wrong. You have made a mistake but it doesn’t define who you are in the community,” Judge Rielly said.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.