Members of the so-called ‘Cod Squad’ have been located and issued with penalty notices of $500 each for possession of a prohibited size fish, the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has revealed.
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The two men from Narromine have been under investigation by DPI and the NSW Police Rural Crime Unit since May when they posted a photo on social media of themselves holding a 54-pound Murray Cod.
It is illegal to catch and keep Murray Cod outside of the 55-75 centimetre bracket.
A spokesperson from the DPI confirmed the men had been located and fined.
“DPI Fisheries officers located the men with the assistance of the NSW Police Rural Crime Unit,” the spokesperson said.
“The men were each issued a penalty notice of $500 for possession of a prohibited size fish.”
The illicit fishing was discovered after the men were outed on a Facebook page.
The post then went viral, with hundreds of people sharing, reacting to and commenting on the post.
Just a week later one of the men uploaded more potentially incriminating photos: three combined images allegedly showing nine oversized Murray Cod gutted and hanging up.
The second post, uploaded on a fishing page, gained similar attention.
The Department of Primary Industries website covers fishing rules and regulations and lists what the legal permissible sizes are for catching fish.
