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Purvis Brothers Ltd, a Manitoulin Island commercial fishing company and two of its boat captains, were fined in an Ontario Court of Justice for failing to comply with the conditions of their commercial fishing licence.
The case was heard in a Gore Bay courtroom last fall, on Oct. 24, by Justice of the Peace Lori-Ann Toulouse. The details were released by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry in an April 4 news release.
The court heard that a conservation officer conducted an audit of the daily catch reports submitted by The Purvis Bros. Limited for the 2022 commercial fishing season. The audit identified numerous commercial fishing licence conditions that were not met.
Purvis Bros. Limited of Gore Bay pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the conditions of their commercial fishing licence. The company was fined $3,755.
Two of the company’s boat captains, Anthony Bell of Little Current and Kenneth Smith of Kagawong, pleaded guilty to the same offence.
Bell was fined $615 and Smith was fined $1,130.
This was a random audit, said ministry spokesperson Andrew Chambers in an email, “conducted to assess compliance of the licensee’s commercial fishing licence conditions for the daily catch reports submitted for the entire 2022 commercial fishing season."
Asked to elaborate on the circumstances behind the fines, the spokesperson said the audit discovered that accurate and mandatory information were not included in the company’s daily catch report, such as not listing weight forms for landed fish species, not listing the correct landing dates and fishing outside of licensed quota zones listed.
The spokesperson said the captains were fishing under Purvis’ commercial fishing licence. Individual captains do not hold their own licences.
