A CCTV photo of Scott Steer at the Alert Bay Marina linked him to the Kingfisher and Harbourside Lodge vessels during a fishing expedition. Photo courtesy Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Derek Kilbourn
Sounder News
Gabriola resident Scott Steer has been sentenced to six years in prison. He had been found guilty on January 8, 2025 on multiple counts that he illegally caught and sold sea cucumbers, and breached court prohibitions against possessing or acquiring fishing gear or vessels, on dates spanning July 2019 to June 2020. Found guilty of the illegal sale of sea cucumbers on January 8, 2025 was the numbered company 1215419 B.C. Ltd.
Scott’s wife Melissa (née Larocque) is the sole registered director, officer, and shareholder of 1215419 B.C. Ltd.
Sentencing concluded on Friday, July 25 in Nanaimo Supreme Court.
Scott and Melissa were present in court on Friday to hear the sentence delivered. Scott was taken into custody by BC Sheriffs once court had concluded.
The Honourable Mr Justice Crerar announced the sentence on Friday, July 25, after both Crown and Defense had provided their arguments for what the sentence should be.
In attendance in the court house were family members of the Steers, including their five children. Also attending the final day of sentencing in uniform were enforcement officers from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Shaun Tadei, DFO representative, was one of those officers in court. He said, “all of the fishery officers involved in this investigation, including all of our management, are all very pleased with the results of this trial and sentencing.
“This was a long road to get to the verdict with constant delays by the defence, but shows that it was all very worth while. This was a huge win for the protection of the public fisheries resources; every Canadian should be pleased with how serious the courts are treating poachers. Mr Steer is currently the worst poacher, that we know of, on the west coast and possibly even Canada. His violation history spans nearly two decades and shows consistent violations up to and including his time on house arrest, commencing March 2020.”
Justice Crerar stated, “these proceedings indicate that Ms. Steer and Mr. Steer continued to operate seafood businesses in Canada in breach of prohibitions after Mr. Steer’s arrest for the events leading to the present conviction.”
He later explained that during the trial, Scott had been messaging one of his customers – who was soon to be a witness in this trial. Scott had messaged the customer calling the trial, “pointless,” and, “a waste of time….because it will all be easy to explain.”
With regards to how the sentence imposed will take Scott away from his family, Justice Crerar stated, “multiple past sentencing judges have specifically warned Mr. Steer of the consequences of further offenses on his ability to care for and spend time with his children.
“Mr. Steer continued in his illegal fishing operations with eyes wide open to the likely consequences of his illegal activities on his family life. It is through his voluntary actions that he is separated from his family.”
The Steers will also have to pay a fine of $1,105,718, over a 20 year period. Both Scott and Melissa will be held liable for this by the court.
The court arrived at this number based on what the court could show was the gross revenue from the sale of the sea cucumbers, plus $100,000. Justice Crerar noted this was not inclusive of the thousands of pounds more of sea cucumbers which were harvested and sold illegally.
A lifetime ban is being placed on Scott on anything to do with fishing; including owning fishing equipment; and owning or being on a vessel of any kind other than a BC Ferries vessel. Melissa will also face a fishing ban of ten years.
Justice Crerar stated Melissa, “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 forged fish slips in breach of the act and code.”
Scott is banned from any kind of buying or selling of fish, in any amount, with the exception of up to two kilograms of fish for personal consumption. All equipment used in the illegal harvesting – including the Kingfisher and Harbourside Lodge vessels – was seized by DFO, and is forfeit to the crown. The value of this equipment will not be included as part of paying the fine imposed at sentencing.
The Kingfisher, and the Harbourside Lodge, two of the vessels used by Scott Steer and associates for the illegal sea cucumber harvest, now seized under forfeiture to DFO. Photos courtesy Department of Fisheries and Oceans
In laying out the reasons for the sentence imposed, Justice Crerar stated, “no previous decisions concerning regulatory breaches provide an adequate sentence or sentence range for the unprecedented circumstances of this case.”
Justice Crerar wrote in contrast to some regulatory prosecutions, Scott’s, “offenses were committed as part of a deliberate, deceptive and wide ranging scheme to fish illegally.
“The offender’s deliberate multifarious deception and dishonesty and their brazen exploitation of finite marine resources in direct contravention of multiple court orders, all in the context of Mr. Steer’s long record must be met with significant penalties for meaningful deterrence and denunciation.”
Representatives for the Crown were seeking for a prison sentence of 7 years, a fine of $500,000 for the numbered company, and of $1,005,718. Defense counsel was seeking a prison sentence of 18 to 24 months and a fine of $500,000.
In pronouncing the sentence, Justice Crerar detailed Scott’s history of fisheries offences. Scott has had 34 convictions for fisheries offenses over 13 previous cases going back to 2008. Justice Crerar called it the longest record of fishing violations in Canadian history. Justice Crerar said Scott’s history of non-compliance pre-dates those cases, as evidenced by warnings and tickets given to Scott before 2008. Scott had previously been prohibited by the courts in 2016 from having any fishing gear, being onboard any fishing vessel or applying for a new fishing lease for until 2038. At the time those 2016 prohibitions were put in place, Scott was already under a 10 year prohibition that started in 2013, of not being on board any vessel which is licensed to be engaged in any commercial or aboriginal fisheries in Canadian or American waters; not to possess or acquire any interest, legal or equitable, absolute or contingent, in any such vessel or license; not to own or possess fishing gear of any kind.
File photo
Scott Steer of Gabriola, and a numbered company, were found guilty of illegally harvesting and selling sea cucumbers.
Events leading up to the current trial began after Steer was arrested in the morning of March 2, 2020, in North Vancouver, for illegal crab harvesting. That arrest led to a further DFO investigation of Scott. On March 6, 2020, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) officers executed a search warrant on the Steers’ then-home on Catalina Drive in Nanaimo. In the residence, officers located various items of fishing items, and considerable evidence related to the sale of sea cucumbers.
Justice Crerar said he could not agree with the Defense that an 18 month sentence would be a significant step up from Scott’s longest previous sentence of six months.
Justice Crerar said, “As Mr. Steer has shown, it is impossible for the DFO, with its limited resources, to actively patrol every bay and fjord on the vast British Columbia coast for marine poaching.
“A significant sentence must be imposed to deter Mr. Steer and other active or potential poachers.
“It is clear that past lesser sanctions, including multiple shorter periods of incarceration over his long record of violations, have been wholly ineffective in changing Mr. Steer’s behavior. He is wholly unrepentant. Rehabilitation is highly unlikely.
“On the contrary, his actions over the past 17 years indicate that he will almost certainly return to marine poaching as soon as he is released from prison. Only a very significant step up in incarceration has any hope of affecting rehabilitation, denunciation and deterrence. Only incarceration will prevent him from inflicting further harm on the scarce public resource of the fisheries.”
Crerar concluded his judgment stating that, “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. A significant period of incarceration is not only proportionate and just, but necessary.”
The entire ‘Oral Reasons for Sentence’ document from Justice Crerar can be read online. Click here.
Both Steers were found guilty earlier this month in provincial court, of failing to disclose information to Fisheries officers.
Sentencing for that trial is set for this coming September.
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