Does D.F.O. police their Commercial fisheries with a Twin engine plane?

jeffywestcoast

jeffywestcoast

Well-Known Member
Yesterday i was trolling off snake island when i saw a completely blacked out twin engine plane buzzed by about 75 feet off the water swooped right in past a commie prawn boat.. kinda looked like they were looking at the commie boat....I wasn't doing anything wrong.. and i cant see any other plane being able to buzz boats at 75 feet off the water... thought it was kinda weird... Anyone seen this plane before??
 
I have seen a twin engine king air police the Wcvi RCA's. These aircraft are usually charters with ex-military spotters on board. Never heard of a blacked out one-don't believe fisheries have their own aircraft anymore.
 
Ya kinda thought it was weird that a plane could buzz boats like that, it was definitely a twin engine fixed wing aircraft all painted flat black.., pretty sure average joe pilot is not allowed to add buzz commie boat at 75 feet to the flight plan, i think the prawn boat was inside the RCA's area as it was fishing west of snake island...
 
Yes fisheries has a plane they use. Its a twin engine. Its not blacked out its a dark green. They do flyovers of the comercial and sport fleet with it. And it doesnt matter if your in an rca if youre prawn fishing.
 
It's green with yellow marking and was out yesterday. They already have a very clear picture of you and your boat before you will even see or hear it.
 
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Ya i was not prawning but trolling on the otherside of the boundry at snake island, i think the commie prawn boat was prawning, either way i thought it was kinda odd, the plane definitley buzzed right pasted the commie boat ..may be checking the lic..im sure they were doing nothing out of the ordinary..
 
Nice.. maybe they should stop flying that puppy n put some fuel in their boats... I did notice the RCMP boat the higgit pulling into the harbour afterwards..who knows?? also i haven't even seen a DFO boat around for years ,only ever seen them at the cleaning tables..anyways matters not as i have a pretty good grasp of the tape measure :cool:
 
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I know the plane, call sign "speed air". The plane I call the john deer cuz of the colors green with yellow. Its a very regular looking twin gas engine craft but its not the plane that makes it special. Its the equipment on that plane, highly specialized photo equipment and who know what else. They often call out to ships and request information from them. They have the conversations on VHF CH 10 and I have listened to them do this for years off the coast. I have been buzzed by them a few times over the years. Its good to see them out there. I suspect that when they are buzzing vessels it is for visual confirmation. Not unusual for them to be close they are just trying to get a really really good look at you.

I never heard of a black plane tho.
 
Hmm. well it looked black to me but i was wearing polarized shades maybe that was the difference, definitely buzzed the commie prawn boat right down the port side...cool i guess and ya now that you mention it i do remember the yellow stripe...
 
Yeah, the plane is olive green and yellow. They buzzed me last year at Porlier Pass several times. I've also seen them out at Swiftsure Banks. They take photos of the violators and then go looking for them. There was a DFO officer at the Port Renfrew marina one day a couple years back. He was walking the dock. He had a big stack of photos, looking for the boats.

Dave
 
Maybe that's what it is going to take to help bring the wild salmon stocks back up to where they should be...Maybe that fancy plane should be looking for people dumping full fish totes of sockeye on the side of the road to rot..(just sayin)..
 
In our dreams!

jeffywestcoast said:
maybe that's what it is going to take to help bring the wild salmon stocks back up to where they should be...maybe that fancy plane should be looking for people dumping full fish totes of sockeye on the side of the road to rot..(just sayin)..
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