West Coast Poacher Gets Lifetime Ban for Fishing Violations

Notorious West Coast poacher banned from boarding a fishing boat for life after he was convicted of catching crabs under cover of darkness and leading law enforcement officers in a dangerous high-speed chase .

Scott Stanley Matthew Steer, a repeat offender under the Canadian Fisheries Act, was recently sentenced to a lifetime fishing ban and prohibited from being aboard any fishing vessel by a BC Supreme Court justice after being convicted of five crimes.

But the poacher represents a minor catch in a tougher effort to crack down on the larger black market for illegal seafood, experts say.

Steer and two accomplices were charged with various crimes after they were caught illegally crabbing in Vancouver Harbor on March 1, 2020.

Sea Bus operators passing through the port reported a small stationary vessel with no lights on around midnight. The Coast Guard then dispatched a rapid response boat with fisheries officers on board to investigate.

When the Coast Guard approached the suspect ship, it took off driving erratically at speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour through the busy commercial port before being boarded near Lonsdale Quay, according to court evidence.

Steer was arrested with approximately 250 live crabs and various forms of crab fishing equipment and commercial crab traps.

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In May, Judge Peter Edelmann found the island-based harvester Gabriola guilty of fishing without a license, fishing out of season, and possession of illegally caught crabs, in addition to violating previous court orders not to be on fishing boats or in possession of fishing equipment. .

The lifetime harvest ban is the first in the Pacific region in more than a decade, said Art Demsky, commander of Canada’s Fisheries and Oceans detachment.

“He is one of the reasons we continue to have problems with the overexploitation of our fisheries,” Demsky said, noting that Steer is still awaiting two other lawsuits for alleged fishing violations.

Poaching threatens the sustainability of fish populations, undermines effective resource management and harms coastal communities and traditional sources of food for indigenous communities, he added.

In addition to the bans, Steer was sentenced to six months in jail, minus the time served; an additional three-year trial period; a one-year curfew; and 75 hours of community service.

He is also unable to buy or sell fish for five years and was ordered to lose the $ 50,000 aluminum boat used in the illegal poaching expedition.

Sammy Williams, a member of Steer’s crew, was also convicted and is scheduled to be sentenced in the new year. Cristopher Schill, who was also on board, pleaded guilty in a separate trial.

But despite the significant penalties imposed on Steer, it will do little to curb the remaining black market for illegally caught seafood, which likely involves an established network of processors and exporters to international markets such as Asia, Demsky said.

“If you are fishing illegally, you have to get rid of them,” he said. “Someone has to buy their fish and resell it.”

There are black markets for crab, halibut and rockfish, which are lucrative fisheries in British Columbia, as well as endangered abalone and salmon and illegal shark fins, Demsky said.

As in drug trafficking, it is difficult to estimate the amount of illegal seafood entering the market and its overall impacts on conservation or fish populations, he said.

“There is no paperwork, it is not easy to trace and it is kept secret,” he said.

“People do not openly sell illegal products, it is something like drugs and they become part of an underground economy.”

The offending collectors are working to prevent investigators from identifying intermediaries or processors who buy their seafood, Demsky said, adding that Steer threw his cell phone, which could have contained much of that data, overboard prior to his release. arrest.

Dyhia Belhabib, an environmental scientist and researcher specializing in illegal fishing, said it is good news that a criminal like Steer, who intentionally and habitually breaks the law, has received such severe penalties.

But investigations into who is laundering illegal marine fishermen’s catches for the market is the only way to curb the impacts the practice has on coastal communities and conservation, said Belhabib, also a senior fisheries researcher at Ecotrust Canada.

“Banning him from fishing is great, but it won’t stop the people he’s been fishing for,” he said.

“Those are the people we want to identify … because if you break that structure, you will break illegal fishing.”

There is a lack of data, intelligence and in-depth investigation necessary to unravel a complicated financial web, Belhabib said.

“It is not necessarily a lack of competition; I would call it a lack of capacity, ”he said, adding that such complicated and expensive investigations would span multiple departments and agencies.

Regardless, Steer and his repeated blatant for-profit violations do not reflect the more common pattern of violations typified by coastal harvesters, he said.

Many fishing rules are complex, complicated, outdated or seemingly ridiculous, so they are broken by accident or because fishermen can’t understand why the regulations exist, Belhabib said.

Other violations are intentional but reflect a demonstrative action to enforce rights, as in the case of some instances that involve indigenous collectors, he added.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada could reduce the most common and isolated violations by focusing more on collaboration than enforcement, Belhabib said.

“I think it is necessary to speak with the fishermen, collaborate with the communities and give them the benefit of the doubt,” he said.

“There needs to be a conversation … a way to perceive fishermen not as criminals but as real people who will help solve the problem.”

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada National Observer