The Ocean Provider, a fishing vessel moored in Port Alberni, was recently caught fishing tuna illegally and had 32,000 pounds of the fish seized by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
The Port Alberni Provincial Court sentenced the numerous owners of the ship to pay a fine of merely $6,000 for the infraction on June 28th.
The company which owned the vessel pleaded guilty to fishing for albacore tuna between July 22nd and August 15th, of last year and doing so without the authority of a valid licence.
2,250 tuna were seized by the DFO which weighed 31,956 pounds.
The DFO told Victoria Buzz that when this kind of massive seizure happens, the DFO tries to make the illegally obtained fish go to good use.
In this case, the highest bidding processing facility gets the fish and the money is forfeited to the Crown. This seizure sold for over $127,000.
The way the DFO discovered this illegal fishing activity is with routine inspections of unsuspecting vessels.
The Ocean Provider was found around 42 nautical miles offshore of Barkley Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, near Bamfield when investigators discovered they did not have a valid licence for fishing tuna.
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