Tenshi Seafood, a seafood processing company, was fined $40,000 in Richmond Provincial Court for trapping undersized crabs.
The Richmond seafood company pleaded guilty to the offence after being caught by fishery officers from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) in January 2023.
“The harvest of undersized crab is the largest threat to conservation of Dungeness crab stocks, which is a traditional food source for Indigenous communities and core to the livelihood of commercial crab harvesters,” DFO said in a statement.
“Dungeness crab is also a significant economic benefit to coastal communities; specifically, the recreational fishery industry and tourism.”
This is the second fine for Tenshi Seafood.
In 2020, Richmond Provincial Court Judge Bonnie Craig found the company guilty of violating Canada’s Fisheries Act and ordered them to pay a fine of $75,000 and to hand over a list of its customers from the past two years to the Department of Fisheries and Ocean (DFO).
The company was also ordered to publish a letter addressing all its customers of the offences the company was found guilty of.
Tenshi’s co-owner Dishi Liu was also ordered in 2020 to pay a fine of $25,000 and Thuong Nguyen, master of the commercial fishing vessel Dream Chaser, was fined $10,000 for obstructing a fishery officer.
To disrupt and prevent illegal activity, the DFO is asking the public for information on activities of this nature or any activities in contravention of the Fisheries Act and regulations.
Anyone with information can call DFO Pacific region’s toll-free violation reporting line at 1-800-465-4336, or email the details to [email protected].
- with files from Valerie Leung
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