The Conservation and Protection Intelligence and Investigation Services Unit from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) announced the conclusion of a three-year multi-country, multi-agency operation involving the illegal sale and possession of Northern abalone, a threatened species under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).
It is told that on August 5, 2008 in Richmond Provincial Court, Wun Tai (Wendy) Li, manager of Richmond-based Solidstate Enterprises Canada Ltd., appeared before the Honourable Judge Ronald Fratkin for the illegal possession of an unspecified quantity of frozen Northern abalone found mixed with other species of abalone. Ms. Li pled guilty and was fined $25,000.
In a same related cased on June 2, 2009 Momoji Seafood Packaging and Exporting Ltd. appeared in Richmond Provincial Court. The Honourable Judge Jane McKinnon accepted a guilty plea and ordered a fine of $35,500, directing $34,500 of that amount to DFO to promote conservation and protection of Northern abalone through scientific research. Momoji, which was found in possession of approximately 120 pounds of Northern abalone, was also prohibited from possessing any species of abalone for the next two years.
These two companies were successfully brought to trial following a three-year multi-country, multi-agency investigation triggered in 2007, in part, by an alert regarding suspicious activity supplied by a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) inspector. Members of DFO’s Conservation and Protection Intelligence and Investigation Services Unit traveled to the United States and Mexico as part of the investigation, which also uncovered a related abalone smuggling operation at the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana.
In addition to the above prosecutions and abalone seizures, the investigation led to the discovery of a significant quantity of Northern abalone (around 750 pounds) in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. With the assistance of DFO Intelligence and Investigation unit and DNA evidence, the NMFS in San Diego successfully obtained a conviction in this operation in September 2009.
