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[Nitroholic]

Cohen Commission
No one followed the B.C black-market salmon
MARK HUME | Columnist profile
VANCOUVER— From Monday's Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, May. 22, 2011 7:20PM EDT

He called himself “king of the Fraser River native fishery.” He had 20 guys working for him and could deliver big numbers of salmon.

In a conversation secretly taped by Department of Fisheries and Oceans investigators, he told two U.S. undercover agents posing as American fish buyers that in an average season he could supply 150,000 pounds of sockeye. But if the money was right, and guaranteed in advance, he could get 10 times that amount.
More related to this story

    Former B.C. chief says sockeye was stolen from her band
    Excluded transcript frustrates group at Cohen inquiry
    Natives getting sweetheart deals from government, B.C. Tory leader says

And that was just sockeye. Chinook, chum and pink salmon could be delivered, too – all taken during periods when native communities were licensed to fish for food, social and ceremonial (FSC) needs.

The Cohen Commission of inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River heard last week from DFO enforcement officers, who suggested the FSC fishery is a cover for a lucrative, large-scale black-market operation. They testified that in one investigation they found 345,000 FSC salmon stored in industrial freezers, and that they believed 97 per cent of all FSC fish are sold illegally into the market, not distributed to native people, as intended.

“Most of the first-nations people … we deal with, by far the majority of them, are good people and sometimes those people get led astray. But there is a core group of people out there that simply are in it for themselves,” testified Scott Coultish, regional chief of intelligence and investigation services for DFO.

What the Cohen Commission didn’t hear was any testimony about the meeting between the agents and the “king” of the Fraser River native fishery. Phil Eidsvik, a non-lawyer who is at the hearings representing the BC Fisheries Survival Coalition and the Area D Salmon Gillnet Association, tried to get the transcript entered as evidence, but it was ruled out after a lawyer for a native coalition objected to its relevance.

The transcript, leaked to Mr. Eidsvik by a source he won’t identify, was made in 1989.

It is old, but one of the agents involved in that operation said in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail last week that it remains relevant today, because it gives an inside look at the illegal trade in food fish.

“What kind of chinook volume are we talking about?” one of the agents asked the king, after getting a commitment on sockeye.

“Ah, I would think that around here more than about 20 tonnes,” he said.

Pinks?

“I could probably get about 100,000 pounds pretty easy, “ he said.

The agent said he was interested in chum salmon, too, with fresh eggs, which had high value in the Japanese market.

“No problem with that as long as the price is right,” the king said.

“Do you think maybe … 300,000 pounds total on the chum?” the agent asked.

“Yeah, I think I’ve handled that much before,” he replied.

“Any problem if the payment is only in cash?”

“No, no, that’s, that’s the way I like it,” the king said.

In total he had just offered to supply the buyers with 590,000 pounds of native food fish.

Gail Sparrow, former chief of the Musqueam band, recently complained that many people on her reserve didn’t get their allocation of fish last year, even though 800,000 sockeye were harvested in the Fraser FSC fishery, because, on her reserve at least, most the salmon were taken off reserve by fishermen who illegally sold them.

It is probable the Musqueam fish went to a big dealer, like the king of the Fraser River, who was never charged in 1989, despite the damning nature of the comments he made on tape.

Why was the king never busted?

“We went with the tapes to the Department of Justice and they wouldn’t proceed because of a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, which forbid covert tapes where a police officer was present unless the suspect was aware of the tape being made,” said the former DFO agent. “We also tried to go through the justice system in the USA, but they felt that it was a Canadian problem.”

The Cohen Commission heard that the DFO investigation that found 345,000 FSC salmon in cold storage didn’t go anywhere, because enforcement couldn’t get funding to track the salmon after it left the freezer.

So we don’t know where those fish went. But maybe the king does. Apparently he’s still operating.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/no-one-followed-the-bc-black-market-salmon/article2031554/

[Easywater]

Now I know why a friend told he there were a few new F150s and Cadillacs parked at the Albion dock when he went to buy some sockeye there last year.

It's one thing to sell a few fish out of the back of a truck but totally different when a syndicate is formed to illegally export fish.
We are talking hundreds of thousands (millions?) of dollars and I think it is unlikely that the money made it back to the band.

Too bad about the chum since it is only for the roe and there seems to be very small returns these days.

[alwaysfishn]

Now I know why a friend told he there were a few new F150s and Cadillacs parked at the Albion dock when he went to buy some sockeye there last year.

It's one thing to sell a few fish out of the back of a truck but totally different when a syndicate is formed to illegally export fish.
We are talking hundreds of thousands (millions?) of dollars and I think it is unlikely that the money made it back to the band.

Too bad about the chum since it is only for the roe and there seems to be very small returns these days.

Even if the money made it back to the band, isn't there something wrong with the natives catching fish under a food and ceremonial license and then selling it for cash?

The other problem it creates is a cynical society which looks at what natives are getting away with and questioning why natives can get away with breaking the law and Caucasians can't!

I spoke to fishermen on the river last year that were coming back to the river multiple times during the day and each time they took a limit. Their rationalization was if the natives were ok to sell their "food and ceremonial fish" then whats the big deal with taking a few limits of sockeye.....  I phoned in to the RAPP line a couple of times but have no idea if it was followed up as I did not receive any feed back.

[nosey]

Did I read that right, this is from tapes made in 1989, don't they have anything more recent than that to present?

[alwaysfishn]

There are numerous things that have been presented, this is just one of them.

[pornlando]

This aint right

[troutbreath]

Illegal trade in native-caught salmon rampant: DFO

The decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon is the subject of a judicial inquiry led by retired judge Bruce Cohen.
File
By Jeff Nagel - BC Local News
Published: May 18, 2011 5:00 PM
Updated: May 18, 2011 5:57 PM

Aboriginal fisheries on the lower Fraser River are "out of control" and vast amounts of salmon supposed to go strictly for food, social and ceremonial purposes are instead sold on the black market.


That's the assessment of Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) staff tabled in evidence this week at the Cohen Commission into the decline of Fraser sockeye.


DFO investigators estimated 97 per cent of lower Fraser sockeye harvested under aboriginal food fisheries are sold, according to one document summarizing internal department concerns after an April 2010 meeting.


Scott Coultish, who heads DFO's Intelligence and Investigation Services branch, defended the figure before the commission Tuesday, saying it reflects staff estimates.


That and other evidence filed at the inquiry gave fresh weight to long-running claims of widespread native poaching and illegal sale of salmon.


"The root cause of illegal harvest is the sale of that product," said the 2010 document.


A 2006 operational intelligence assessment by DFO's Special Investigations Unit warned illegal sales of First Nations-caught fish is widespread across B.C. via back door dealing to restaurants and fish shops as well as door-to-door sales.


"The FSC (food, social and ceremonial) First Nations fishery on the Lower Fraser River is largely out of control and should be considered in all contexts, a commercial fishery," the assessment said, warning DFO is "unable to effectively control the illegal sales."


Various methods and levels of sophistication allow First Nations-caught salmon to be laundered into regular commercial markets, it added.


The assessment called for more effort to identify and charge retail buyers in the Lower Mainland and said more resources are needed to step up enforcement.


The findings were in response to a 2005 probe by fishery officers who suspected large amounts of First Nations-caught sockeye was going into cold storage at outlets across the Lower Mainland for later illegal sale.


Project Ice Storm was an audit of 110 Lower Mainland fish plants that found 345,000 sockeye in storage as of September 2005.


That was the end of a season where low sockeye returns meant no commercial fishery was allowed, nor was any aboriginal economic opportunity fishing (a limited for-profit commercial fishery for First Nations.)


All the fish in the plants was therefore FSC fish and much of it seemed packaged for sale.


But the investigation ran out of funding, DFO officers never got proof any of the frozen salmon were sold and no prosecutions resulted, the inquiry was told.


Randy Nelson, DFO's director of conservation and protection in the Pacific region, said further budget cuts expected will likely continue to limit the department's ability to target illegal sales and poaching.


Although it's impossible to say how much illegal fishing happens, Nelson told the inquiry he believes it may account for hundreds of thousands of sockeye vanishing each year, but not millions.


Many people fish illegally, he said, not just First Nations.


Even when poachers are caught many never pay their fines.


There's more than $1 million in outstanding fines for illegal fishing in the Pacific region, according to an update tabled at the inquiry.


Sto:lo fisher advisor Ernie Crey, speaking outside the hearings, dismissed the allegation large amounts of sockeye are illegally sold by First Nations.


He said aboriginal people don't use traditional preservation methods as much and have increasingly turned to industrial freezers.


"It's not prohibited," Crey said. "We can do that if we choose, along with all other Canadians."


He said DFO wrongly assumed the fish in 2005 was destined for the black market.


"They don't have any direct evidence that's the case," he said.


B.C. Conservative party leader John Cummins said he feels vindicated by the evidence presented this week.


The longtime commercial fishermen was fined $200 in Surrey court Monday for his role in a 2002 protest fishery that tried to shame DFO into cracking down on aboriginal food fish sales.


"It just underscores what we have been protesting and saying all these years," Cummins said.


He said he doesn't blame First Nations for the entire downturn of Fraser sockeye, but he said they are part of the problem.


"It makes the management of the fishery so much more difficult for the department when they don't know how many are going upstream," Cummins said.


"The resource is at risk. If we don't do the right thing, we're going to lose it."


Cummins has not yet paid the latest $200 fine nor another one for $300 handed down last December for another fishing protest in 2001.


He said he hasn't yet decided whether he will pay.

[newsman]

I say smoke screen. I personally feel this is another DFO trick to get all the fisher groups commercial, native , and sport, in-fighting again. Always bear in mind the the DFO has a mandate to promote the fish farm industry.

Yes there is a black market salmon industry, but 97% come-on. My question is why is this bought to the public now; 13 YEARS" after the accusation was made. I find it hard to believe that it is black market salmon are anywhere near the treat to out salmon, that open net pen fish farms are. I covered the the fish farm thing extensively in my news paper column, back in 95-96. Then as now the majority of joe public allowed the government paid spin doctors to direct all eyes away from open net pen fish farms and the masses of  the sea lice they produce. No-one listened then, no-one listens now; I give up!

[Dave]

Jeez another DFO conspiracy    why are we still on about sea lice?  28m sockeye last year, possibly 20m pinks this year. You say no one listened then and still aren’t… could it be due to the fact that recent science has shown sea lice are not the hot button issue people like yourself keep pushing?

[newsman]

Do the math; the last two record salmon returns were from fry that went out when the government buckled to the public out cry and forced the fish farms to fallow their nets.

I'm tired of the blame being shifted from the commercial guys to the natives and back; and then for a change of pace the loggers and miners. While all the above place the blame on us sporties. Come on, we are all trying to clean up our act and their is volumes of documentation to prove it; so who is not pulling their weight here. I write for news papers and well know how to spin a story in any way I wish. Take it from one sees the inside; take everything you read with a grain of salt, find out where the write draws a paycheck from, and read between the line.

[Dave]

So newsman, show us your version of how to spin.  Show us some peer reviewed defensible data that positively implicates the "masses of farmed salmon sea lice" to salmonid declines in the Fraser River or any of it’s tributaries.

[newsman]

Do the math; the last two record salmon returns were from fry that went out when the government buckled to the public out cry and forced the fish farms to fallow their nets.

[Rodney]

Dave, how does it feel to have a life-long career that has been based on conspiring to deceive the general Canadian public?

[Dave]

Dave, how does it feel to have a life-long career that has been based on conspiring to deceive the general Canadian public?

Not sure if I will be able to sleep tonight

[kingpin]

the amount of nets in the fraser has gotten progressively worse year after year,  I dont doubt the fact they are selling as many as the report suggests. its not the biggest thing affecting the fraser sockeye but taking upwards of a million fish out of the river cant be helping anything...the thing that really bothers me is the roe fishery for pink and chum does....ive watched them slit the does and throw them back in the water along with dead males they catch in the nets too...and im talking by the thousands