DFO slaps 3 B.C. men with combined $113K in illegal fishing fines

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has slapped three men with more than $100,000 in total fines for illegal fishing on the B.C. coast.

Fisheries officials laid the fines out in a pair of media releases on Tuesday and Thursday.

The largest set of fines, totalling $49,704.68, was issued against Adrian Slavko Kern, a commercial fisherman the DFO said illegally deployed fishing gear to catch halibut and sablefish in the Chatham Sound area near Prince Rupert in September 2018.

The area was closed to fishing at the time, and officials said Kern had three previous convictions for violating the Fisheries Act.

Kern pleaded guilty to violating the act and was given fines of $25,000 for illegally setting the gear and another $24,706.48 for illegally selling the fish.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada said the court judgment also bans Kern from applying for a new commercial licence for eight months.

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The DFO said commercial crab harvester Sou Tac Ma was hit with $44,000 in total fines after being found guilty in December 2022 of a pair of Fisheries Act violations aboard his vessel the Golden Phoenix.

That figure included $21,500 for crab fishing in Rivers Inlet during a closure in the spring of 2019, and another $22,500 for fishing without a valid commercial licence in the same area around the same time.

The third case saw commercial crab harvester Truc Hoang Le convicted of “numerous” Fisheries Act violations, and fined a total of $20,000.

Le was fined $18,000 for failing to comply with his commercial crab fishing licence in the Chatham Sound area in the spring of 2018.

Le, the vessel master of the CFV Marine Hunter, failed to ensure the vessel’s electronic monitoring system was active 27-7 while fishing, the DFO said. He was fined another $2,000 for a variety of infractions.

Anyone with information on illegal fishing activity is encouraged to contact the DFO’s violation reporting line at 1-800-465-4336, or email the details to DFO.ORR-ONS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.