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[JackFunk]

Have to say, this really gets my goat. You would expect guides and lodges to not negatively impact the stocks that they themselves are relying on. Seems very shortsighted and greedy, imo.
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"A luxury fishing lodge (Queen Charlotte Lodge is a 20-acre luxury fishing resort on the western shore of Naden Harbour.) on Haida Gwaii has been fined $35,000 for illegally catching dozens of halibut and over 100 chinook, coho and pink salmon.

Officers with Fisheries and Oceans Canada seized the illegal catches from Queen Charlotte Lodge during a surprise inspection last year.

DFO fishery officer Geoff Thorburn said the fish were well over the legal limits allowed on Haida Gwaii."

Full Story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/luxury-lodge-on-haida-gwaii-fined-35k-for-illegal-fishing-1.3949159

[typhoon]

It's not clear to me what the violation actually was.
It looks like they may have had more than a 2 day possession limit on hand which is illegal, but hardly an abuse of the stocks.

[JackFunk]

It's not clear to me what the violation actually was.
It looks like they may have had more than a 2 day possession limit on hand which is illegal, but hardly an abuse of the stocks.

The wording is somewhat ambiguous but 'well over the legal limits' doesn't sound promising. And this was a surprise check. Do we assume this was a once in a lifetime 'mistake' or has this sort of thing been happening long term. I guess we can't know for sure. 

[typhoon]

If you are staying (or working?) at the lodge and you catch your limit you would need to ship it to your residence every 2 days.
If you did not ship your catch and you retain another fish then you are in violation of the possession limit.

My point was that you aren't catching more than your legal limit per day (and presumably not exceeding any annual limit) so you are not abusing the stocks.
I'm not saying this is what happened, only that it could have happened based on the description.

[SPEYMAN]

There are specific laws that lodges must follow when storing customers catch. Identify species, information on containers to identify person. These are just some of the requirements. Notice that it was the lodge, not the customer, that was charged.

It would appear that the lodge did not follow the rules,laws etc. Did not see where the lodge was charged with "illegal fishing".

[DanL]

Another link to the story with a few other details

http://www.haidagwaiiobserver.com/news/411595965.html

Looks like there are other charges on the same lodge still pending as well.

[bigblockfox]

its cool that a majority of the fines go towards habitat rehabilitation and all the seized fish were donated.

[bigblockfox]

another article with a good bust. this one a repeat offender.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-seafood-retailer-fined-70k-1.3948569

[typhoon]

Another link to the story with a few other details

http://www.haidagwaiiobserver.com/news/411595965.html

Looks like there are other charges on the same lodge still pending as well.

Yup, scumbags. These lodges charge a ton of money for a trip. The least they could do is adhere to the rules.

[skaha]

--Yep... industry self regulation works better than useless government employees.

[obie1fish]

Check out George Cuthbert's possible explanation in the comments section of the Haida Gwaii Observer article. There seems like there is probably more to the issue than meets the eye. The vast majority of lodges understand that you can't bite the hand that feeds you.

Also, unless one has spent a summer working at any of these lodges, you might not ever appreciate how much work and care goes into the processing, labelling, and transport of these fish. The regulations have tightened and become more specific over the years, and enforcement officers will always make surprise visits. Lodges would rather comply than face the bad publicity that will haunt them, much like the QCL debacle here from 2014. No doubt they have taken a hit to their clientele list. It's just not worth it.

[TacoChris]

After having read this article I also wonder if there is more to this story. The media is all about the flashy headline often without taking time to investigate fully. Some times they misstate facts.Every time I see an article about my area of expertise I cringe as they inevitably do not explain things well or miss the important message.  I see one article that indicates they did not label thing correctly and another that says they had over a 100 fish over the limit.

Who did the fish in question belong to employees, guests or the lodge? I would presume they have a lot of employees

I would think if anglers where being allowed to keep more fish than the limits allow many would have come forward. If I had a guide or lodge staff telling me it was OK to keep more fish I would have reported them. Has this happened ?

[SPEYMAN]

The media does not report the news these days, they create headlines and make stories so the advertisers will continue to advertise.

Circulation numbers are the game and the truth is not necessary.

[obie1fish]

I agree, Speyman. It's not like it hasn't been that way in the past (Think J. Jonah Jameison from Spider-Man from decades ago), but even more so now in the ISIS/Trump/Hillary world in which we live. More now than ever it seems like I have to be more discerning with every minutae that's printed or put on the screen as "news". My pet peeve is the press taking polls and publishing that instead of finding actual facts.
So were the fish mislabeled, improperly processed, or intentionally mishandled, I don't think we can tell from the facts that we're given.

[Birkenhead]

The media does not report the news these days, they create headlines and make stories so the advertisers will continue to advertise.

In this case, there is not much news to report on until the full court decision is updated into the Provincial Court database which is free for anyone to search.

http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments.php?link=http://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcpc/