By Anna Burns-Francis
Clever detective work by scientists at the University of Otago has led to the conviction of a dodgy fisherman.
The clues were few and far between though – a few flecks of paint were all they had to go on.
A thousand snapper were dumped at sea and all police had to go one were tiny chips of blue paint.
Solving a crime of such minute scale required some expert help and that is where these Otago university scientists, like Russell Frew, stepped in.
“In this case, the paint, we're looking at some of the trace levels of contaminants within it. The trace elements like zinc, iron and calcium.”
Those tiny specks of paint stuck to the fish led police straight to the paint on the boat belonging to Ross Harvey.
He has been fined $27,000 for dumping the legal size fish at the entrance to Ohiwa Harbour in Tauranga in 2009.
But if you thought the story sounded like something straight out of CSI, not quite.
“No, CSI have to fit it into one hour episode. It doesn't quite happen that way. This took several weeks to get right through to the final result,” says Mr Frew.
It took around 40 hours to test the paint so for the research team at the centre to trace element analysis, it is a satisfying case closed.
“To sit back and watch it go through the legal system and say that we had a small part to play in that outcome,” says Mr Frew.
Their hard work finally paying off in this fishy tale.
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