Abalone poachers face sentencing

It was the first conviction under the four year old Species at Risk act and yesterday the sentencing phase for three north coast men who were arrested back in March of 2006.

The three, Randall Graff, Daniel McNeill, and Michael McNeill all pleaded guilty in March to poaching some 11,000 abalone in February of 2006, their sentencing hearing will end today, when the presiding judge will provide for their punishment.

Potential fines could range as high as $750,000 with potential jail time for Mr. Graff could be five years, with the McNeil brothers possibly looking at seven years in prison. In addition to the financial concerns and jail time, they could stand to forfeit their boat, truck and all other items used in the pursuit of their crime.

Poaching is a concern of many along the west coast, who fear that due to cutbacks and changes in policy at DFO that the poachers are getting the upper hand.

The Globe and Mail provided an interesting background into not only the case at hand, but the issue of abalone poaching on the Pacific coast, which threatens to render the species extinct by 2051.

Poachers threaten future of abalone, scientists say
CARRIE WEST
Special to The Globe and Mail

VICTORIA -- A sentencing hearing begins today in Prince Rupert for three men convicted of the largest known poaching of abalone in B.C. history.

Randall Graff, Daniel McNeill, and Michael McNeill pleaded guilty in March to poaching 11,000 abalone found in the back of a Ford F-150 pickup truck in February, 2006. They were the first abalone poachers convicted under Canada's four-year-old Species at Risk Act.

Each man faces a maximum $750,000 fine. Mr. Graff could also be sent to jail for up to five years, while the McNeill brothers face up to seven years because of previous fisheries convictions.

Their sentencing comes as new figures from federal scientists show that northern abalone -- once a $1-million-a-year industry in B.C. -- will be extinct in B.C. waters by 2051. The as-yet unpublished numbers use 2001 data and project ahead 50 years.

"We can see extinction," said Laurie Convey, a federal resource-management biologist and chair of the recovery efforts. "It is very upsetting."

Northern abalone is considered a threatened species in Canada. Their numbers crashed in the 1970s and '80s because of unsustainable legal and illegal harvesting. A federal ban halted commercial harvesting in 1990, but poaching persists. These hand-sized delicacies may fetch between $10 and $15 in the shell on the black market.

Penalizing poachers might help reverse the trend in B.C.'s northern waters, Ms. Convey said. Some sites selected in the 1970s for monitoring have seen an 80-per-cent dip in abalone stocks; three-quarters of them have no abalone at all.

In southern B.C., the numbers are even worse. "There may not be hope for areas like Victoria," Ms. Convey said.

On the southern tip of Vancouver Island, just two of the 19 sites surveyed in 2005 had abalone. Divers found three old abalone in total. Just one large old abalone was spotted near the William Head penitentiary, considered one of the safer locations in the province due to the 24-hour surveillance cameras. Ten years ago, divers found 211 abalone at this site.

Ms. Convey believes the collapse of the species in southern waters is tied to poaching, that depleted the stocks to unrecoverable numbers.

Eight watch groupshave organized up and down the coast, all in First Nations communities. In 2001, an abalone hatchery also opened in Bamfield on the west coast of Vancouver Island. But despite 30 poaching-related convictions over the past decade and recovery efforts, the population trend has shown a continuous decline.

Northern abalone, called pinto abalone in the United States, are the only abalone predominant in B.C. waters. They live on rocks less than 10 metres deep on exposed and semi-exposed coastlines. They remain the only ocean invertebrate with a complete harvesting ban in B.C.

Ms. Convey estimates that about a third of abalone deaths in northern B.C. come at the hands of poachers. While the trend is bleak, Ms. Convey points out that juveniles are still present in these northern waters. If poaching can be curbed, these populations could recover, she said.

The three poachers awaiting punishment in Prince Rupert stole nearly double the next-largest seizure of abalone in the province's history. Ten years ago, fisheries officers found 6,200 newly shucked abalone shells and charged two poachers.

The Prince Rupert poachers were caught with their truckload in nearby Port Edward in an early morning takedown before they could drive to Vancouver to sell their loot. Their sentencing hearing is scheduled to last two days.

Aside from possible fines and jail time, they could forfeit the boat, Ford truck and other items used during the crime. The poachers pleaded guilty under both the Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act. The Species at Risk Act conviction adds $250,000 to the maximum penalty and another five years in possible jail time.