A Gabriola Island man has been sentenced to six years for his role in orchestrating every aspect of an illegal sea cucumber operation, including the harvest and sale of the poached marine animals.
In a decision on Friday, July 25, at B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo, judge David A. Crerar sentenced Scott Steer on several counts, after he was found guilty this past January on charges stemming from his poaching while running a "sham" numbered company.
From July to December of 2019, Steer acquired vessels and a refrigerator truck, retrofitted the vessels for commercial fishing, bought fishing gear and supplies, incorporated the numbered company, obtained licences, recruited crew, generated false Fisheries and Oceans Canada records, oversaw and directed multiple sea cucumber fishing expeditions in closed areas and without licences, and sold sea cucumbers.
His previous criminal record includes 34 convictions on 13 prior cases dating back to 2008 when he was found guilty of selling fish without a licence and fishing in a closed area. The judge said the guilty man's record of non-compliance goes back even earlier to formal warnings and ticket violations for breaching the fisheries act.
"The crown understands Mr. Steer’s record to be the longest record of fisheries act violations in Canadian history," the judge stated. "Warnings, fines, prohibitions, and multiple incarceration sentences of various lengths have all failed to deter or reform [him]."
The judge added that previous sentences, including jail time up to six months, appeared to do nothing to deter or rehabilitate the fisherman. The judge drew attention to "lol" text messages that encapsulated "knowing and mocking flouting of the law and court orders."
After being released from custody in 2020, Steer continued to breach prohibition orders, providing Wen Lian with sea cucumbers up to and including during a trial in the latter half of 2024.
The judge also addressed the level of calculation, planning and organization that Steer and his wife put into the crime, calling him the directing mind of a complex organization, using numerous co-conspirators, unwitting employees and subcontractors. This included hiring many lower-level employees as divers and crew to work unlicensed vessels that were illegally acquired, and commissioning several other vessels to fish the illegally acquired licences.
Steer made more than $1 million in sales to a single buyer, Wen Lian Aquaculture in Vancouver, but the judge noted that revenue from other buyers was unknown. Wen Lian received 87,400 pounds of sea cucumbers, but between October and December 2019, Steer's poaching operation yielded 97,700 pounds of sea cucumbers under their illegally obtained licences in addition to thousands of pounds without a licence.
The judge noted that for a fine to be effective, it must exceed the cost of doing business, so that it is cheaper to comply than to offend, and it must be meaningful to the offender. With these considerations in mind, the judge ordered a fine of $1 million, representing the full gross revenues received from Wen Lian for the illegally caught sea cucumbers, plus an additional fine of $100,000 "specifically to condemn the Steers’ deliberate, destructive, and dishonest actions, and to recognize that their profits from their illegal fishing operations exceeded the Wen Lian sale amount."
In his decision, the judge said the fisherman considers himself "unbound by laws."
"His deliberate deception and illegal fishing shows contempt for the fragile and finite marine resources and ecosystems," the judge's decision noted. "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 judge added that the only way to stop Steer from "ravaging the ocean and flouting the law and court orders" is to incarcerate him away from the sea.