Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

FISHERIES ACT - SECT 44

(1) In a prosecution for an offence against this Act or any other law of the Territory, an averment -

(a) as to a matter specified in subsection (2);

(b) made by notice in writing and certified by the Director; and

(c) served on the defendant,

shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be sufficient evidence of the matter averred.

(2) An averment may be made under this section in relation to the following:

(a) the latitude and longitude, or the UTM position, of a place;

(b) the distance of a place from another place;

(c) that a person or thing was at a stated place, or within a stated area or at a stated latitude and longitude or a stated UTM position, at a stated time, or at the time of the taking of a stated action or the occurrence of a stated event;

(d) an entry in a register kept under section 9;

(e) that a place is within a fishery management area, managed fishery, or an aquatic life reserve;

(f) that an act alleged to have been done was done within an area of waters which had been declared to be closed or restricted under this Act;

(g) that an area of water is water above or below the tidal limit; or

(h) the identity of fish or aquatic life or of a substance contained in a product made from or containing fish or aquatic life, or used in the processing of fish or aquatic life.

(3) An averment shall not be evidence for the purposes of this section unless a copy of the averment has been served on the defendant or the defendant's agent or counsel not less than 7 days before the hearing at which the averment is to be tendered.

(4) The court shall take judicial notice of the official signature of a person who holds or has held the office of Director and a certificate under subsection (1) purporting to be signed by the Director shall be prima facie evidence of that fact without proof of the signature of the person appearing to have signed it.

(5) The court may, if the amendments can be made without hardship or injustice to the defendant, allow at the hearing of proceedings such amendments to be made to an averment under this section as appear to it to be desirable or to be necessary to enable the real question in dispute to be determined.

(6) Evidence that fish or aquatic life (other than commercially processed fish or aquatic life) was under the control of a person -

(a) in a vessel or in a vehicle that contained fishing gear; or

(b) in or in the vicinity of water or swamp,

is evidence that the person took the fish or aquatic life.

(7) Where evidence is given that a person had under the person's control -

(a) in a vessel; or

(b) in or in the vicinity of water or swamp,

fishing gear that could not lawfully be used for fishing at that place at that time in a normal way in which the gear is commonly used and a Fisheries Officer satisfies the court that the officer reasonably suspected that the person used the gear at that place at that time for fishing, then the evidence is evidence that the person used the gear for fishing at that place at that time.

(8) Evidence that fish or aquatic life was on display in a shop is evidence that the fish or aquatic life was offered for sale.

(9) Evidence that a Global Positioning System (GPS) device gave a position in latitude and longitude, or as a UTM position, is evidence of that position.