A 63-year-old Pender Harbour resident has been issued fines totalling $5,000 for offences under the Federal Fisheries Act and BC’s Sport Fishing Regulations.
In Sechelt Provincial Court on Feb. 7, David C. Reid pled guilty to making a false statement to a fisheries officer, fishing for shrimp with more than four traps, and fishing with unidentified shrimp traps.
In sentencing, Justice Steven Merrick imposed fines below the $7,000 level that was being sought by federal Crown counsel but above the $1,500 amount suggested as appropriate by the defence. He ordered that the penalty could be paid over 32 months, in recognition of the obligations Reid faces in relation to his extended family.
Upon being charged with the three violations on May 2, 2023, fisheries officers seized a quantity of Reid’s fishing gear. His attorney requested the gear, valued between $1,710 and $1,850 be returned, but Merrick ruled that the seizure be upheld.
In her submission, Vancouver-based federal crown counsel Molly Greene outlined that on the date of the charges, a federal fisheries officer observed Reid, on his boat, harvesting shrimp from a string of eight traps and then travelling to a second location to harvest another string of eight traps.
Greene said the officer reported boarding the boat and confirming that Reid held a recreational fishing licence and as a First Nations person, an aboriginal communal fishing licence for food, social or ceremonial (FSC) purposes. Those allowed him to fish with up to eight traps. She stated the officer reported observing that eight of the 16 subject traps were marked not as Reid’s property but as belonging to a member of his family. When questioned about being observed pulling more traps than allowed under his licences, she said Reid made and then reiterated a false statement to the officer.
Reid’s defence counsel did not dispute the facts presented by the Crown but requested leniency in the levying of a fine by offering an explanation of the circumstances surrounding the offences. The family member who owned the second group of traps normally accompanied Reid when he checked the gear. On the date in question, that individual, who also holds both a recreational and FSC fishing licence, was ill and did not travel. It was the defence’s position that if the family member had been well enough to participate in collecting from the traps on the subject date, there would have been no violation of fishing regulations.
The defence’s statement also indicated that Reid eventually admitted to the officer that he, alone had harvested shrimp from more than eight traps on that day. It was also noted that the defendant entered a guilty plea to the three offences at his second appearance, saving the court time in considering the matter.
