DNA Boats owner Jason Elvines with his truck that was kicked at the Nelson Boat Ramp last Thursday. Photo: Jessie Johnston.

Boat ramp attack… for taking photos

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A Nelson man was left shocked after his truck was kicked and he was abused for taking photos in a marine reserve.

Jason Elvines, owner of DNA Boats, took his latest boat out for a test run on Thursday afternoon, along with man who commissioned it. The plan was to give it a sea trial and take some photos of it, using Jason’s drone camera.

They left from the Nelson boat ramp, powered around to the marine reserve between The Glen and Cable Bay, says Jason.

“We saw a kayaker fishing on the edge of the reserve and he waved out to us as we passed, we waved back and once we were in the reserve I started showing the owner all of the bits and pieces, and then I took out my drone and started taking photos.”

One of the photos Jason took in the marine reserve.
One of the photos Jason took in the marine reserve.

He says they could hear the kayaker yelling but thought he’d just caught a big fish and was excited.

Once they’d got back to Nelson, Jason was reversing his truck on the boat ramp when a man flagged him down.

“He comes up to my window and says ‘man, have you seen the side of your truck, someone’s kicked it in and had a knife trying to slash your front tyre’. Because it was on the passenger side I hadn’t seen it.”

Then a friend of Jason’s, who works at Mot Nets, came over saying he saw the man yell at his truck and kick it. “My mate knew it was my truck and yelled at him ‘what the hell are you doing?’ And the guy starts getting abusive towards him, saying we were poaching.

“Because he had a knife they didn’t go over but it has stopped him slashing my tyre.”
With the boat on the truck, Jason pulled over and relayed the story to his customer and showed him the dents on his truck.

As he was doing that, a man in a car inched forward and started to abuse him, calling them names for poaching. Jason recognised the man as the kayaker from earlier in the day. “He was a really agro guy and I yelled at him ‘what the hell are you doing, we were out there filming, not fishing’.”

Witnessing it all was an officer from the Ministry of Fisheries, who was parked next to Jason. The man had earlier complained to the officer, so he had the man’s name and phone number.

Jason says he laid a complaint with police and would like to see charges laid.