Lobster fisherman fined $21,000 for fishing untagged traps and possessing v-notched lobsters

There’s been another steep fine in another case of fishing untagged lobster traps in southwestern Nova Scotia.

Shelburne County fisherman John Peter Atwood, 61, was sentenced in provincial court in Barrington on June 12 after entering guilty pleas to fishing untagged traps and possessing v-notched female lobsters.

Atwood, a first-time offender, was handed $21,000 in fines and also had to forfeit the value of his catch, which amounted to $21,785. As well, the fisherman will be suspended from fishing during the final two weeks of the 2008/09 season.

Atwood’s illegal fishing activity was revealed as a result of an undercover operation carried out by DFO, in which the department secretly marked lobsters while they were at sea. Officers later found 15 of the marked lobsters among Atwood’s catch when his boat was inspected at a wharf in Cape Sable Island in December.

There were also nine v-notched lobsters in the catch. V-notching lobsters is a conservation measure and these lobsters are supposed to be returned to the water.

DFO says this case involved 50 untagged traps.

The sentencing came not long after a Digby County, N.S. fisherman received a $30,000 fine for fishing 64 untagged lobster traps. In that case the court also forfeited $1,740 worth of seized lobster and has prohibited Meteghan River lobster fisherman Ronald Joseph LeBlanc from fishing during the final two weeks of the 2008/09 commercial season.