October 13, 2005
Prince Rupert, B.C. -- Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) announced today that Kendall Ross and Floyd Sampson from the northern community of Lax Kw'alaams have pled guilty in Prince Rupert Provincial Court to illegally harvesting abalone, a threatened wildlife species.
During sentencing, the court accepted the recommendations of the Prince Rupert Restorative Justice Program, which stressed the importance of taking into account both fisheries conservation objectives and aboriginal perspectives in imposing a sentence on First Nations offenders. Under the terms of the probation order, DFO will be assisting Mr. Ross and Mr. Sampson to complete a research project designed to educate the two offenders on the detrimental effects of harvesting abalone. The offenders will present a research project to the local schools, to be organized by the offenders at their expense, and to a public workshop in Port Simpson specifically set up for the community of Lax Kw'alaams. In addition, the offenders are required to conduct food fishing within the law for the elders of the Lax Kw'alaams community. Each offender will also perform 80 hours of community service under the supervision of the Prince Rupert Restorative Justice Program coordinator. In handing down the sentence, the court reminded the offenders that abalone are a species at risk, the harvest of which is prohibited for all - commercial, sport and aboriginal.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada would like to remind the public and coastal communities that abalone are protected as a threatened species under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). The goal of SARA is to prevent endangered and threatened wildlife from becoming extinct or lost from the wild, and to help in the recovery of these species. Killing, harming, harassing, capturing or taking abalone is prohibited under SARA. Although all abalone fisheries have been closed to all user groups since December 1990, continued harvesting is the biggest threat to abalone's survival in the wild. Surveys of abalone, including areas accessible only to remote communities, show no sign of recovery. Over 70 per cent of the sites that formerly had an abundance of abalone now contain no abalone at all. If this trend continues, abalone will be one step closer to extinction.
A number of First Nations and coastal communities are actively helping in the abalone recovery program. Members of the Abalone Recovery Implementation Group include the Haida Gwaii Abalone Stewards, Kitasoo Abalone Stewardship Project, Bamfield Huu-ay-aht Community Abalone Project, Heiltsuk Abalone Stewardship Project, Malcolm Island Shellfish Cooperative, Nisga'a Fisheries Program, Metlakatla Fisheries Program, and Gitxaala Abalone Watch Program. DFO welcomes the Lax Kw'alaams community to the abalone awareness program. The future of abalone lies in a broad commitment to stop illegal harvesting.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Abalone Recovery Implementation Group are extremely concerned with harvesting activity and ask for assistance and information on abalone harvesting or any contravention of the Fisheries Act or SARA. Anyone with information can call the 24-hour, toll-free Observe, Record, and Report line at 1-800-465-4336.
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For more information:
Jeanette Lam
Communications Officer
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Region
604-666-2872
