Two men caught on the beach in East Porpoise Bay May 17 with 630 clams illegally harvested from a sewage-contaminated beach have been fined $1,000 each.
Ray Stockwell and Ashley McInnes pleaded guilty to fishing clams in a closed area, unlawfully possessing clams and failing to produce a fishing licence. McInnes did not have his fishing licence with him and Stockwell had no licence at all.
In Sechelt provincial court June 22, Judge Dan Moon was told one of the men said "uh-oh" when he saw fisheries officer Robert Kaatz approaching. When Kaatz asked the men if they knew the beach was closed due to sewage contamination, Stockwell said yes, but he had been eating them for years and never had any problems.
Stockwell told the court he was just doing what he has been doing all his life.
"I just kind of felt, being the upland owner and being raised here it's just part of our rhythm," said Stockwell. "That beach is practically the Stockwell beach. We've always used it as a source of food. I know so many people who enjoy clams, I just disperse them around the community."
Kaatz said Stockwell was playing Russian roulette with clams. The amount of fecal coliform contamination varies from clam to clam and the bacteria affect some people more severely than others. While a man Stockwell's size might be able to eat a contaminated clam with few effects, a child eating the same clam might suffer more severe illness, Kaatz said.
The cause of the sewage contamination could be failing septic systems, run-off contaminated with animal feces or sewage outfalls, said Kaatz. Environment Canada regularly tests beaches for fecal contamination.
"There are reasons why it's closed. It's not just for the inconvenience of the public," said Kaatz. "It's public health and safety."Kaatz added that even if the beach had been open for clams and if the men had valid fishing licences, they had taken far more than the daily limit of 75 clams.
"There was a bit of a greed factor," said Kaatz.
The shellfish closures in Porpoise Bay have been in place for years. There are 14 contamination signs posted in the bay, said Kaatz, but many people do not take the closure seriously. The week after Stockwell and McInnes were caught with their contraband clams, a red tide outbreak sent five people to hospital with paralytic shellfish poisoning. All of the poisoning victims had eaten clams from beaches in Porpoise Bay already closed due to sewage contamination.
"This is something you don't want to mess around with - red tide or fecal coliform," said Kaatz. "Red tide can kill people. The lady who was helicoptered out, the doctor didn't know if she was going to make it or not."
Fecal coliform is not quite so deadly as red tide, but can still cause serious illness, he said.
