Sambro, N.S., fisher, fish buyer, violated law during unmonitored halibut offloads, judge rules

A Sambro, N.S., fisherman, a fish buyer and two related companies have been convicted for Fisheries Act violations that included two unmonitored offloads of halibut in the middle of the night.

The charges centred on seven trips made by the fishing vessel Ivy Lewbetween May 2019 and June 2020.

In a decision released Thursday, provincial court Judge Elizabeth Buckle found Capt.Casey Henneberry guilty of five counts of failing to observe licence conditions.

Buyer Samir Zakhour was found guilty of making a false statement to a fishery officer.

ALS Fisheries was found guilty on two counts and Law Fisheries on three counts.

Henneberry, Zakhour and Law Fisheries were each found not guilty on a single count.

The two midnight offloads

The Ivy Lew was found to have twice offloaded halibut without a dockside monitor present in the middle of the night.

In the first instance, May 20, 2020, the judge was not satisfied that a fishery officer carrying out surveillance from hundreds of metres away accurately identified Henneberry as present.

The second offload took place in Sambro at 2 a.m. June 12, 2020 ten hours after Henneberry hailed in and unloaded catch in the presence of a dockside monitor.

COVID protocols in place at the time meant monitors did not go on board the vessel.

In the early morning fog, the Ivy Lew pulled into a different wharf in Sambro where dozens of halibut were offloaded without a monitor present.

When fisheriesofficers swooped in to make the bust, a person jumped from the boat and ran away. A pursuing officer lost that person in the gloom.

Henneberry was not among those arrested at the scene, but his wallet with $1,090 in cash and his driver's licence were found in the Ivy Lew wheelhouse. His personal belongings were also on board.

Fishery officers seized 7,461 pounds of halibut, gutted with heads off.

Buyer Samir Zakhour was found behind a tub of rope at the scene.

Judge didn't buy defence story

The judge did not find a plausible explanation for the second offload.

She noted it was unlikely the Ivy Lew would have caught the seized halibut which had anundressedweight of 10,000 pounds in the intervening ten hours.It marked "alarger catch than that reported on any other single day for any of the seven trips."

"Even if I accept that there may be lawful reasons for moving fish from one wharf to another, I do not accept that there would be reasons for doing it in the middle of the night," Buckle said in the decision.

Nor was she persuaded there was no evidence Casey Henneberry was present.

"I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the only reasonable inference is that the halibut that was removed during the unmonitored offload was retained in the Ivy Lew's hold after the monitored offload, that Casey Henneberry was responsible for that and then was also ...present at the unmonitored offload but ran before being apprehended," Buckle wrote.

Buyer said he was there to say hi

Zakhour was in Bedford when he was texted at 1:34 a.m. and called to the wharf. He showed up in his GMC Sierra. The truck would be later searched where a satchel containing $34,960 in cash was found inside the vehicle.

He told fishery officers that he was only there to say hi, that he had walked and had no idea who owned the vehicle.

"Clearly he didn't walk to the wharf," Buckle said in dismissing his claims.

Inaccurately reported catch

Henneberry was found to have inaccurately estimated the catch when reporting to monitors.In some cases he underestimated the catch and in others overestimated.

Either way, Buckle found the reporting was inaccurate and contravened licence conditions.

The guilty findings were delivered orally last month.

The decision makes no reference to sentencing.