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| Release Date: |
February 6, 2007 |
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| Offence Date: |
January 2005 to April 2005 |
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| Item: |
Selling fish to other than FFMC, decayed fish in nets, fail to issue fish trade record |
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| Description: |
Winnipeg Natural Resource Officers
located two grocery stores in
Winnipeg that were selling fresh walleye
(pickerel) fillets to their
customers. Both store managers were
interviewed and both stated that a
Commercial Fisherman by the name of Arni
Matheson had sold them the fish
on January 21st, 2005.
Arni Matheson does not have a Special
Dealers Licence that allows him to
sell fish to anyone other than the
corporation (Freshwater Fish Marketing
Corporation (FFMC)). The only exception
to this rule is that a commercial fisher
can legally sell fish to a final
consumer. The Commercial fisher is then
required to issue a "Commercial
Fisherman's Trade Record' (CFTR) for any
fish he sells.
The food stores were not final
consumers. One store bought 20 lbs. of
walleye for resale. The other bought 97
lbs. of walleye for resale. Written
statements were
taken from both managers.
Any fish that is transported to, other
than the FFMC, must be accompanied by a
Fish Transportation Loadslip(FTL). FTL
books are signed out at the Manitoba
Conservation office in Gimli. Used FTL's
must be returned to Manitoba
Conservation offices within 7 days after
each month of use. All books must be
returned at commercial fish season end,
which was March 31st, 2005. The accused
was issued FTL's books on January 10th,
2003 and July 8th, 2004. As of May 18th,
2005, the accused had not returned any
of these FTL books.
On March 31st, 2005 Natural Resource
Officers were conducting a Commercial
Fish Compliance patrol of the Fisher
Bay/Jackhead area on Lake Winnipeg.
Treaty gill nets set under the ice were
located East of Little Tamarack Island.
The 9 net gang of Treaty gill nets were
marked with Treaty number #2073 and name
of the accused, 'Arni Matheson'. The
gang of nets was marked with wooden
stakes. The fish in the nets were
sound and not decaying at that time. The
nets had not been lifted for
approx. 3-4 days due to minimal activity
around the ice basin holes. The
nets were monitored over the next 9 days
to ensure that these legal nets
were removed before the ice
deteriorated. On April 8th, 2005 the
officers checked the nets. The accused
had not returned to remove the nets. The
fish were checked and revealed that some
were decaying. The nets were all removed
and seized. The accused has commercially
fished north of this area in the winter
of 2002 and 2003.
The accused was charged with 6 counts
under the Fisheries Act. He pled
guilty to 4 of 6 charges under plea
agreement in November 2006, and was
fined $ 3,000.00. The accused was
convicted for two counts of Selling
fish to other than FFMC; one count for
Decayed fish in nets; and one count
for Fail to issue Fish Trade record.
Seized nets were forfeited. |
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