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Fishers fined for lobster and crab violations
St. John’s… Robert Cox of Foxtrap, Conception Bay, was fined $1,000 in provincial court in St. John’s on February 14, 2005, for possession of illegal lobster.
Fishery officers from the Bay Roberts Detachment were conducting a routine vessel patrol in coastal water near Foxtrap on Sunday, June 25, 2005, when they observed Mr. Cox fishing lobster from a small boat.
During an inspection of the vessel, fishery officers recovered two V-notched female lobsters and one female egg-bearing lobster (berried lobster); both are illegal to harvest and must be released back into the water if captured.
V-notching is a voluntarily practice amongst commercial lobster fishers whereby one in four egg-bearing female lobsters is notched with a special tool that cuts a V shape from the section of the tail fan. The lobster is then carefully returned to the water. V-notching remains clearly visible for several years, and allows the female to grow larger, spawn several times and produce more and better quality eggs.
Keith Noel Colbert of St. Michaels, Avalon Peninsula, was convicted in court on February 15, 2006, for exceeding his 2004 crab quota in 3L. He was fined $1,500 after a review of his dockside monitoring records showed a crab overrun of 609 lbs.
A condition of licence in the crab fishery requires that all catches to be offloaded at designated fish landing stations with the offloading monitored and the catch recorded by a dockside monitoring company observer.
For more information:
Sam Whiffen
Communications Officer
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
(709) 772-7631
Susan Keough
Communications Officer
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
(709) 772-7628
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