A B.C. man with the lengthiest record of fisheries violations in Canadian history has been sentenced to six years in prison and fined $1.1 million for illegally harvesting sea cucumbers and flouting a fishing ban.
Scott Steer and the corporation he is jointly accused with faced eight charges, including fishing in a closed area without a licence, selling more than $1 million worth of illegally harvested sea cucumbers, and breaching an earlier order that prohibited him from owning fishing vessels, a B.C. Supreme Court judge said in his July 25 ruling. Steer was also accused of falsifying records and using his co-accused “sham” corporation to hide his involvement.
Steer’s operation harvested 45,359 kilograms of sea cucumbers in areas that had been closed to any harvesting for years and collected more than $1.5 million from the harvesting operations, Judge David Crerar said.
Steer sold the sea cucumbers to Wen Lian Aquaculture in Vancouver and operated under a number of aliases. Sea cucumbers are highly popular in Asia and considered a delicacy, where they have almost gone extinct. They sell for between US$10 and US$600 per kilogram in China and Hong Kong.
Steer has an extensive history of fisheries infractions and various other offences dating back more than a decade, that were “deliberate, calculated, and stealthy, rather than resulting from a reckless or negligent due diligence failure,” Crerar said in his decision.
The Nanaimo judge said that Steer’s brief periods of incarceration have “wholly failed to deter or rehabilitate” him.
Steer has a history of convictions that include unlawfully catching crabs in Vancouver, including one incident that involved leading Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) authorities on a boat chase as he fled the scene. He has also been found guilty of defrauding a fishing vessel owner, defying court orders related to an intimate partner violence case, and repeatedly breaching probation conditions.
Steer and his wife, Melissa Steer, persisted in their illegal fishing activities during the course of his trial, the judge said. He noted that Steer’s deliberate and contemptuous disregard for the law suggests the “unlikelihood of remorse or rehabilitation, now or in future.”
The judge noted that Steer and his wife are raising four children and that some of them have “health and cognitive issues,” adding that Melissa Steer also suffers from “migraines, anxiety and generalised pain.”
“Multiple past sentencing judges have specifically warned Mr Steer of the consequences of further offences on his ability to care for and spend time with his children,” Crerar said, adding that Melissa Steer will be the primary caregiver of the children during Steer’s incarceration and that “Mr. Steer continued in his illegal fishing operations with eyes wide open to the likely consequences of his illegal activities on his family life.”
Crerar said the six-year sentence was necessary to deter would-be offenders from engaging in actions similar to those of Steer.
The $1.1 million fine is the responsibility of both Steer and his wife and must be repaid over 20 years, the judge said.
“Ms. Steer was not simply a passive vessel for the sham corporation, for which she served as director, but was an active and willing participant in the fraudulent and illegal purchase and sale of sea cucumbers, in part through personally filling out the forged fish slips,” the judge said.
Crerar said getting Steer off the water and away from fishing for a longer period is necessary to protect the environment and uphold the law.
“The only way to stop Mr. Steer from ravaging the ocean and flouting the law and court orders is to move him far from the sea for a long period of time,” Crerar said. “A significant period of incarceration is not only proportionate and just, but necessary.”
