Sea-Cucumber Abuser to Be “Moved Far From the Sea for a Long Period of Time”
There are plenty of laws and regulations meant to protect fish. See, e.g., United States v. 1855.6 Pounds of American Paddlefish Meat" (Nov. 14, 2018). And possibly also bees, if you think bees are fish. See California Supreme Court: We Don't Think Bees Are Fish" (Sept. 23, 2022). But violating most of these would generally result in a fine, not imprisonment. How flagrant do fishing-law violations have to be to result in a six-year prison term? This flagrant.
According to the CBC, last week a court in British Columbia sentenced a man with the longest record of Fisheries Act violations in Canadian history" to six years in prison. Scott Steer was found guilty in January of illegally harvesting and selling sea cucumbers, which I now see are not fish" but rather echinoderms like the somewhat less misleadingly named starfish.
Sea cucumbers generally have a soft and cylindrical body, rounded off and occasionally fat in the extremities," and also like the President have only a rudimentary nervous system. They are fleshy bottom-feeders that use tentacles to scoop up the detritus they eat, making them more disgusting than many aquatic species but not the hagfish, no, definitely not that. See The Octopus: Honorary Vertebrate?" (May 20, 2015) (digressing to express disgust with and even animosity toward the hagfish); see also THIS AGAIN (Hereinafter, This')" (Mar. 23, 2022) (digressing to compare something else I hate to a hagfish). But though they are not fish," the taking of sea cucumbers is limited by the Canadian Fisheries Act.
Scott Steer could not care less about the Canadian Fisheries Act.
Steer was arrested in 2020 after someone reported what appeared to be illegal crab harvesting" near Vancouver. When a Department of Fisheries boat approached to inquire, Steer reacted as any innocent crab harvester would, by initiating a high-speed boat chase" during which he hurled his phone into the sea. Predictably, he did not escape. A search of his home revealed all kinds of fishing gear," incriminating documents, and a sh*tload of dried sea cucumbers, all illegally harvested.
It turns out that while sea cucumbers are arguably disgusting, but at least don't have teeth like a hagfish, they are considered a delicacy by some. This means they can be sold for upwards of $100 a pound, according to the report.
Evidence at trial showed Steer sold 88,000 pounds of them.
He was convicted on all eight charges he faced, not just the sea-cucumbering charges themselves but also charges that he violated prior orders banning him from owning a fishing boat or even fishing gear. Because in no way was this Steer's first illegal-fishing venture.
According to the sentencing order, Steer has been convicted of 34 counts in 13 other cases dating back to 2008, and had been warned and ticketed several times before that. The order summarizes the evidence in what it calls Steer #1" through Steer #13," and notes that Steer victimized not only sea creatures but also vessel owners and crews over the years, compiling a remarkable record of nautical badness. Penalties escalated, eventually including short jail terms, as Steer continued this conduct and defied court orders. In 2016, a judge banned him from fishing for 22 years, and after he ignored that, in 2021 another judge made it a lifetime ban. But high-speed boat chases and 88,000 pounds of sea cucumbers suggest he has been less than compliant.
In fact, the court said in its order, Steer was out poaching sea cucumbers during breaks from his trial for poaching sea cucumbers. This apparently came to light after a customer complained that some of the 4,496 pounds of sea cucumbers Steer sold him while on trial for sea-cucumber poaching were slimy and smelled bad." Steer texted back blaming the truck driver and offering a discount. What's those Cukes worth?" he wrote, appallingly, and said that if they could reach an agreement he had another 80,000 lbs left" to sell. This evidence, the court suggested, undermine[d] Mr. Steer's claim" at trial that he had turned [over] a new leaf" and was no longer poaching.
Given this record, it's surprising that the sentence was only six years. Apparently post-offence misconduct" could not be considered aggravating factors directly adding to the sentence, but the court did find it relevant to whether Steer would likely comply with an order short of imprisonment (answer: no), and indicated the unlikelihood of remorse or rehabilitation, now or in future." Also relevant: the scale and sophistication of his operation; his consistent subterfuge, use of proxies, and stealth," aliases and shell companies; and evidence that Steer fully recognized and even exulted in the criminality of his actions," as the court found encapsulated in his text message" to a crony reading it's all illegal lol."
The court found no mitigating factors applied.
Saying this was an unprecedented" situation amongst regulatory-breach cases, the court got out its thesaurus for the order's conclusion. Multifarious," brazen," destructive," calculated," stealthy," incorrigible," ungovernable recidivist," belligerently ... unrepentant," and exhibits active contempt for the concept of lesser punishment" all made an appearance. None of this was good news for Steer:
Mr Steer considers himself unbound by laws. His deliberate deception and illegal fishing shows contempt for the fragile and finite marine resources and ecosystems. He shows contempt for the fishermen who follow the rules. He shows contempt for the laws of Parliament and the orders of the Court. He shows contempt for the efforts of past courts to steer him towards an honest path through less severe sanctions that rely on his honesty and compliance. 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.
The order doesn't say where Steer will be moved to, but looking at a map I'm guessing western Saskatchewan.
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