Tag Archives: DFO

Indigenous Nations, Justice

Volunteer Terrace executive shares her experience with the restorative justice system

Terrace Standard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tracey Davidson never thought that her love for volunteering activities would one day see her leading a volunteering organization.

When she moved to Terrace from North Vancouver in 2011, she joined Volunteer Terrace (VT) as a volunteer community engagement coordinator.

She found herself enjoying volunteer work more and more, and it even helped her through the grieving process when her husband passed away.

Eventually she took up a paid position with the organization and was soon offered the role of interim executive director.

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Rivers & Oceans

BC spot prawn fishers celebrate federal minister’s regulatory decision

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Independent prawn harvesters are celebrating after Fisheries and Oceans Canada modified its proposed new guidelines for the commercial fishing sector. 

Harvesters can now continue to use whatever size containers they have been to freeze prawn tails at sea for the 2022 spring season before having to transition to a maximum 24-ounce transparent plastic tub next year, Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray announced Monday. 

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Justice, Rivers & Oceans

West Coast poacher gets lifetime ban for fisheries violations 


National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A notorious West Coast poacher is banned from stepping aboard a fishing vessel for life after he was convicted of harvesting crabs under the cover of darkness and leading enforcement officers on a dangerous high-speed pursuit.

Scott Stanley Matthew Steer, a repeat offender under Canada’s Fisheries Act, was recently sentenced to a lifetime fishing ban and prohibited from being on board any fishing boat by a B.C. Supreme Court Judge after being convicted of five offences.

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Justice, Tourism

Eco-tour operator nets $75,000 in penalties

By Norman Galimski,  Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Provincial Court in Prince Rupert has fined the general manager of Sandspit Adventures $75,000 for five offences in 2019 against the federal Fisheries Act and provincial Fish and Seafood Act.

On Dec. 7, Judge David Patterson ordered that Chad James Whiteside must pay a $45,000 fine by Dec. 31, 2024, for ‘buying, selling, trading, bartering or offering to buy, sell, trade or barter fish not caught and retained under the authority of a licence issued for the purpose of commercial fishing.’ As well, for other counts, he was ordered to pay $20,000 by Dec. 7, 2022, and a further $10,000 by Dec. 7, 2023.

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Rivers & Oceans

New fisheries minister wades into fish politics, cutting herring harvest in half

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In her first major decision, new federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray has reduced the West Coast commercial herring fishery by half.

Wading into the thick of fish politics Thursday, Murray said the decision is based on an abundance of caution given herring are a critical food for endangered salmon stocks — further jeopardized by the double whammy of fire and floods in B.C. this year.

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