Details of court room convictions and a legal decision affecting the Lax Kw’alaams will shape the debate of the fishing season for 2008 and beyond, as the west coast fishery took on a larger than usual amount of exposure from the judicial system over the last 48 hours.
The burst of legal news began on Thursday with an announcement from DFO regarding recent convictions of five west coast fishermen, including a trio convicted in Prince Rupert court in January. The convictions were based on observations by DFO of the lack of brailing of fish on seine boats.
Brailing is a controversial edict from DFO that is considered time consuming and an unwanted hindrance to their livelihoods by some fishermen. With a short period of time to harvest their catch, many don’t feel that the brailing process is one that is needed, considered as another in a list of DFO moves that make their industry harder and harder to participate in year after year…
( from the blog a town called podunk, click on the link below to see the entire article atowncalledpodunk.blogspot.com/2 … 9331132040 )-