A judge at the Powell River provincial court has fined a man $30,000 for fishing in a closed area of Desolation Sound and for other violations of the Fisheries Act.
Hai A. Trinh was found guilty in Powell River Provincial Court for retaining undersize prawns, and other violations of the Fisheries Ac, including fishing in a closed area of Desolation Sound.
The Honourable Justice Leven Wingham ordered the commercial prawn harvester to pay a fine of $30,000 and forfeit the value of his catch, which sold for $12,630.
The case goes back to June 18, 2019, when fishery officers received information from the public about a commercial prawn fishing vessel operating in a closed area.
Fishery officers from the Powell River Conservation and Protection Detachment intercepted the prawn vessel at sea.
They found 200 prawn traps on board with fresh prawns, with two more strings of gear still fishing.
All the traps were pulled from the water and the live catch was released. The officers escorted Trinh to Lund where the catch was seized and sold.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a mandate to protect and conserve marine resources and to prosecute offenders under the Fisheries Act.
Anyone with information on activities flouting fisheries rules can call the toll-free violation reporting line at 1-800-465-4336, or email the details to DFO.ORR-ONS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.
Aren’t some of the natives bands doing the same thing? That’s what sparked the prawn issues in Novia Scotia….they’re keeping and dumping the small ones and selling on black market apparently….same with black market salmon apparently sold off season when it’s illegal for others to go fishing under “traditional tribal usage” loopholes. That’s right, some of em care more for $$$ than the environment.
That is not what happened on the East coast. It looks like your should not have made a comment without some basic knowledge of the history and the current situation back East. First step is to understand it has nothing to do with prawns.
It’s disturbing that you claim that Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a mandate to protect and conserve marine resources and to prosecute offenders under the Fisheries Act, and yet they allow fish farms to infect wild salmon and pollute the waters without fining them and evicting them without huge protests from First Nations and concerned citizens. Even then they keep renewing tenures etc. They (D.F.O) have been bought by a greedy dirty foreign industry.
Fish farms are not a a threat and DFO manage them bye the rules and do it by the rules if and I mean if the federal government can change policy but farm salmon feed the world demands and many First Nations support fish farmers and work for them example Port Hardy area’s