In July the Provincial Court has slapped Anthony Barry of St. Bride’s fine of $2,500 and had the value of seized crab ($12,815.15) forfeited to the Crown after he was pleading guilty to fishing two crab areas at one time and providing false information to fishery officers. It is said that the offences occurred in April 2007 and at that time fishery officers from the Placentia detachment of Fisheries and Oceans Canada conducted an inspection on Barry’s fishing vessel “Selina Mary” in St. Bride’s, Placentia Bay.
According to the fishery officers it was determined through the vessel monitoring system that Barry fished two separate crab areas at the same time, in contravention of his licence conditions. The officers were also determined that Barry provided a false or misleading log book for inspection. In the meantime the fishery officers from the Placentia detachment conducted a stakeout in the Iona Islands area of Placentia Bay. Using surveillance equipment, fishery officers were able to determine that Kenneth King was processing cod on board his vessel, “The Lady of the Sea” in a nearby cove, in contravention of the Fisheries Act.
After further probe King was also found to have failed to offload all catch as per his licence conditions, which resulted in charges and the seizure of 40 pounds of cod fillets.
On July 9 in provincial court at Placentia, King pleaded guilty and was convicted of failing to offload all catch and processing at sea. He was fined $500 for each charge and the seized cod was forfeited.
