A Canadian aquaculture firm has been fined CAD 350,000 (USD 257,000 EUR 233,000) for operating an illegal steelhead trout farm.
Canada’s National Observer reported West Coast Fishculture Ltd. pleaded guilty to operating a steelhead trout farm in Lois Lake – located in British Columbia, Canada – without a license. The company must remove all traces of infrastructure from the lake by 31 August 2025.
A similar charge against the company’s director, Sean Wilton, was stayed – as was a charge against Robert Lecke, who is the CEO of AgriMarine Holdings, the parent company of West Coast Fishculture.
According to the National Observer, officers with Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans inspected the operation in 2021 and found the farm was located over 300 meters from its designated area. Federal prosecutor Molly Greene told the court that the company allegedly knew they were operating outside its tenure.
A subsequent investigation a year later revealed the company was still operating the illegal pens and was continuing to stock fish inside them.
Canada’s National Observer also reported on the farm in April 2023, citing concerns from local anglers who said they were catching large fish that may have escaped from the illegal farm.
“A huge amount of fish, meant only for aquaculture, are escaping into very sensitive cutthroat and Kokanee trout habitat,” fishing guide Pat Demeester said.
Watershed Watch Salmon Society said it was one of the groups that helped expose the illegal farm and celebrated the fines in court.
According to Watershed Watch, an inspection by federal fishery officers identified several violations on the farms, including either a lack of jump netting or improperly secured jump-netting – designed to prevent fish escaping by jumping out of the farm – on five out of six net pens. The inspections also found only one net-pen had bird netting installed, none of the fish had their fins clipped to indicate they were farmed, no signage existed about restricted access, and the onsite manager could not provide records of above-water inspections of the farm.
Watershed Watch said it contacted DFO Director of Aquaculture Management Brenda McCorquodale about the facility and were told there were no fish at the facility.
“Watershed Watch visited the site the next day. We found the semi-closed containment fish farm operating with fish in it … with no known tenure license,” the organization said.
Watershed Watch said the improperly operated farm adds evidence to its, and other NGOs’, push for the federal ban on open-net pen salmon farms in the province.
