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Fishing guide 'decimated rockfish stocks'
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
September 11, 2009
A joint Canadian/U.S undercover operation has nabbed a fishing guide who is believed to have severely damaged rockfish populations around Saturna Island.
Benjamin Trainer, 26, of Blaine, Wash., the operator of Step Outside Guide Services, pleaded guilty in Duncan provincial court this week to six fisheries violations and was fined $3,000 by Judge Adrian Brooks.
Trainer was charged with exceeding his daily quota of rockfish, failing to return fish to the water in the least harmful manner and wasting fish suitable for human consumption.
Most of the fine will go towards research on restoring rockfish populations, with $2,500 going to the Canadian Groundfish Research and Conservation Society of Vancouver.
Trainer's fishing boat, a seven-metre Double Eagle, was returned to him after being seized in July by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, as it was registered in his parents' names.
Larry Paike, DFO conservation and protection supervisor for Victoria, said the tip-off came from a U.S. fisheries undercover operative and the case was then taken up by Canadian agents.
"He was taking his clients out charter fishing to catch rockfish, which are a species of concern and the limit is one per day," Paike said.
However, after catching the limit, Trainer would tell his clients to keep fishing and, if they caught a bigger fish, would throw the previous catch overboard.
Rockfish rarely survive after being caught.
During the undercover operation it is estimated between 60 and 80 fish were thrown back, Paike said.
"It has had a significant impact on populations in that area. It has decimated the rockfish stocks," he said.
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
September 11, 2009
A joint Canadian/U.S undercover operation has nabbed a fishing guide who is believed to have severely damaged rockfish populations around Saturna Island.
Benjamin Trainer, 26, of Blaine, Wash., the operator of Step Outside Guide Services, pleaded guilty in Duncan provincial court this week to six fisheries violations and was fined $3,000 by Judge Adrian Brooks.
Trainer was charged with exceeding his daily quota of rockfish, failing to return fish to the water in the least harmful manner and wasting fish suitable for human consumption.
Most of the fine will go towards research on restoring rockfish populations, with $2,500 going to the Canadian Groundfish Research and Conservation Society of Vancouver.
Trainer's fishing boat, a seven-metre Double Eagle, was returned to him after being seized in July by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, as it was registered in his parents' names.
Larry Paike, DFO conservation and protection supervisor for Victoria, said the tip-off came from a U.S. fisheries undercover operative and the case was then taken up by Canadian agents.
"He was taking his clients out charter fishing to catch rockfish, which are a species of concern and the limit is one per day," Paike said.
However, after catching the limit, Trainer would tell his clients to keep fishing and, if they caught a bigger fish, would throw the previous catch overboard.
Rockfish rarely survive after being caught.
During the undercover operation it is estimated between 60 and 80 fish were thrown back, Paike said.
"It has had a significant impact on populations in that area. It has decimated the rockfish stocks," he said.