November 29, 2013 — A skilled fishing master who plundered the halibut and sablefish grounds off the west coast of Vancouver Island has been jailed and effectively banned from the waterfront for 10 years by the Provincial Court of B.C.
In a decision handed down this week, Justice Ted Gouge convicted Scott Steer on eight counts for illegally turning off a camera system aboard the Pacific Titan (standard equipment on commercial boats to monitor catches) and for repeatedly landing and selling “thousands of pounds” of fish without recording or reporting it.
Court heard that Mr. Steer had good catches in the six months he ran the Pacific Titan, one day taking so many halibut his decks were awash with fish and his crew worked the longest days of their lives.
But he landed much of his catch at night, off-loading it when his crew wasn’t present and telling the vessel owners the catch was so small it didn’t cover the cost of fuel. By slipping fish ashore, he also evaded a monitoring system by which fisheries managers keep track of the fleet’s overall catch, so that conservation targets can be met.
Read the full story at The Globe and Mail