A B.C. man has been convicted on six counts of fishing offences, three related to sea cucumbers and three around in appropriate acquisition of fishing gear.
“The Crown has established its case against both the individual and corporate accused through extensive, exhausting, convincing, comprehensive, and corroborative evidence,” Justice David Crerar said in his Jan. 8 decision in the case of Scott Stanley Matthew Steer and 1215419 B.C. Ltd.
The judge found Steer guilty of illegal fishing without a licence and during a closed time, in co-ordinating and directing the operations of the Kingfisher and the Harbourside Lodge. Those offences occurred between Oct. 24 and Dec. 11, 2019.
He also found Steer guilty of selling sea cucumbers between those dates to Richmond’s Wen Lian Aquaculture Co. Ltd.
Pacific sea cucumbers are highly prized in China and Hong Kong for their nutritional value and medicinal uses.
Further, Crerar found Steer guilty on two counts of possessing or acquiring fishing vessels in breach of a 2016 court order that he not “possess or acquire any interest, legal or equitable, absolute or contingent, in any such vessel or licences.”
Crerar called that order a blanket prohibition.
And, Crerar found Steer guilty of possessing fishing gear, as prohibited in the court order.
Steer is no stranger to the courts when it comes to fisheries violations.
Those include five fisheries convictions in May 2021 for illegal crab fishing in Vancouver Harbour off North Vancouver in March 2020 in an area closed to crab fishing.
That incident also involved a high-speed boat chase with fisheries officers.
