Sea cucumber poacher in B.C. sentenced to six years in prison for ‘ravaging the ocean’

A British Columbia judge has sentenced a man with the longest record of Fisheries Act violations in Canadian history to six years in prison for “ravaging the ocean and flouting the law.”

Scott Steer and his co-accused corporation faced eight charges including fishing in a closed area without a licence, selling more than $1-million worth of illegally harvested sea cucumbers and breaching an earlier order forbidding him from possessing fishing vessels.

Steer’s co-accused in the case was a numbered company owned by his wife, Melissa Steer, but the company was found to be a “sham.”