One of the three men charged in a high-profile crab poaching case is scheduled to be sentenced in Vancouver Provincial Court next week.
Lyle Donald Sparrow, Jr. entered an intention to plead guilty on four charges during a court appearance May 14.
Sparrow, John Barry Grant and Arnold Robert Wilson were charged after Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) officers boarded a boat off Ocean Beach Esplanade in Elphinstone in late January 2017. Grant and Wilson will make their next court appearances July 18.
The men were arrested following reports from area residents of suspicious activity on the water. A boat and crabbing gear were also seized.
All three were charged with offences under the Federal Fisheries Act and the Coastal and Pacific Fisheries Regulations, including fishing without a licence, purchasing, selling or possessing illegally caught fish, and fishing for prohibited species. Sparrow was also charged with making false statements to a DFO officer.
At the time of the arrests, DFO officials estimated the value of crabs found in just one string of traps at $4,000.
A similar case involving illegal crab harvesting off Keats Island in 2014 wrapped up earlier this year with two men pleading guilty and being fined a total of just over $20,000.
Yat Ming Enterprises Ltd. of Vancouver, the company accused of buying the illegally caught shellfish in that instance, was fined $72,000.
MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones wrote Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc in March, urging him to increase DFO enforcement on the Sunshine Coast and saying poaching “has gotten so bad that in some areas there is barely any crab left.”
In April, directors at the Sunshine Coast Regional District backed up the MP’s call with a letter of their own “to encourage greater coverage” of enforcement.
– With files from Sophie Woodrooffe
