Tag Archives: Ecotrust Canada

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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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Bad faith, beads and trinkets negotiations by DFO obstructs court-affirmed fishery, says First Nations

Windspeaker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

“It’s just frustrating, very maddening, you know, that this is how DFO always operates. We’ve never had a really good fisheries minister response to the work that we’re doing.” — Kekinusuqs, Dr. Judith Sayers, president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council

The lack of good faith negotiations by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in its dealing with five First Nations on the West Coast could result in the criminalization of Nuu-chah-nulth fishers who exercise their court-affirmed right to a commercial fishery, asserts First Nations leadership.

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Rivers & Oceans

Why Bottom Trawling is a climate disaster

By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Bottom trawling, a common fishing practice where large nets are dragged along the sea floor, is exacerbating the climate crisis, a new study has found.

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Finances, Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

fish that rarely feeds British Columbians – they are exported

By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

James Lawson catches fish. Fish that rarely feeds the B.C. coast. 

He’s not alone: Roughly 85 per cent of seafood caught in the province is exported, yet B.C. fish harvesters can’t get their catch to local markets — and the provincial government is doing little to change that in its plans to increase food security post-pandemic.

Continue reading fish that rarely feeds British Columbians – they are exported →