Fisheries violations grab much of the space on Prince Rupert court docket for the day

A full day of work is ahead at the Prince Rupert Court House, with a large
volume of cases up for review today, many of them fishery related 

Today is shaping up to be a busy day for the Prince Rupert Courthouse, with seventeen pages of items to attend to appearing on the daily court register.

The volume of charges to be answered in the court room today would seem to suggest that Officers from the Department of Fisheries have had a very busy month of August, as they continued to enforce fishing regulations during the final days of the commercial, sport and recreational fishery at the end of a Northwest summer.

Of those seventeen pages listed today, fisheries violations both corporate and individual, take up five pages of the busy court agenda, with proceedings set to review a number of charges ranging highlighting the daily proceedings.

Among the listings are charges related to the following areas of Federal fishing regulations:

Obstruction of a Fishery officer, purchase, selling or possession of illegally caught fish, Buy, sell, trade or barter fish without a licence, Fish in waters under the authority of a licence, fish waters other than Canadian fisheries waters, fail to release fish to place from which taken, fish with prohibited gear and Contravening Fisheries Act or regulations.

The Federal justice system takes a serious view of fishing violations in North Coast waters, the imposition of a $15,000 fine as part of a recent judgment related to a Crab fishery violation from 2015 was recently highlighted by the Government as part of their ongoing efforts in Fishery enforcement in the region.

More notes related to the North Coast Fishery can be found on our archive page.

Further background on the work of Emergency Service providers in the Northwest can be found on our archive here.