Advertisement

Live crayfish worth $18,000 stolen from Triabunna fishery

About 200 live crayfish have been stolen from Triabunna Lobsters on Tasmania's east coast.

The property was broken into about 9:00pm (AEDT) Wednesday and some 200 kilograms of crayfish worth $18,000 were stolen from the tanks.

Police believed several people were involved in the theft.

The assistant manager, David Whittaker, arrived at the business within 15 minutes of an intruder alarm going off but saw no sign of the thieves.

"Someone's climbed up on the roof and kicked the Chubb alarm box off, cut the wires or pulled it off and in the same amount of time.

"Must have been a couple of other people at least, to take 200 fish from out of the tanks."

Mr Whittaker believed the thieves would want to offload the crayfish as soon as possible.

"It's not something you'd take to your house and cook up because tonight if they've still got them live, they're rotten."

He said he had already received several calls from people who heard crayfish were being sold by members of the public in Hobart's northern suburbs.

He warned other fishermen to be alert.

"Being near Christmas, just to tell everyone, even fishermen, to watch their catch, watch their boats, because people have been known to snoop on boats around Triabunna even," he said.

Anyone who suspects they have been offered stolen crayfish is urged to contact police.