Two commercial crab harvesters are facing significant fines for Fisheries Act violations in Rivers Inlet and Chatham Sound. In the most recent case, a Prince Rupert Provincial Court found commercial crab harvester Truc Hoang Le guilty of numerous violations of Fisheries Act and fined him $20,000.
Le was fined $18,000 for failing to comply with the conditions of his commercial crab license between April 15 and May 4, 2018, in the Chatham Sound area near Prince Rupert. Le, vessel master of the CFV MARINE HUNTER, failed to follow the regulations by ensuring that the electronic monitoring system was accurately monitoring the vessel 24 hours per day, seven days per week, while engaged in fishing.
He was fined $2,000 more for additional violations.
Late last year, on December 21, 2022, in Port Hardy Provincial Court, commercial crab harvester Sou Tac Ma was found guilty of two violations of the Fisheries Act and fined a total of $44,000.
Ma, vessel master of the GOLDEN PHOENIX, was fined $21,500 for fishing commercially for crab in Rivers Inlet during a closed time between March 27 and April 2, 2019, and $22,500 for fishing without a valid commercial harvest licence in the same area between April 1 and April 15 in 2019.
As part of the Department’s work to disrupt and prevent illegal activity, DFO is asking the public for information on activities of this nature or any contravention of the Fisheries Act and regulations. Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, DFO Pacific region’s toll-free violation reporting line at 1-800-465-4336, or email the details to DFO.ORR-ONS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.
