Recreational prawn fisher fined $5,000 for traps in glass sponge reef

Xiu Song, 53, pleaded guilty to dropping prawn traps into a protected glass sponge reef area off West Vancouver and was fined $5,000 at North Vancouver Provincial Court on September 14.

In December 2025, Fisheries and Oceans Canada officers on patrol in Queen Charlotte Channel spotted prawn trap floats on the surface well within an area where bottom contact and downrigger fishing are banned due to glass sponge reefs below. The traps belonged to Song and co-accused Martin Madden. When officers called them, Song and Madden came immediately and said they did not know about the closure.

Judge Timothy Hinkson acknowledged that Song was forthcoming with officers, relatively inexperienced on the water, and genuinely remorseful. However, Hinkson ordered Song to pay the full $5,000 the Crown sought, citing the reefs' ecological importance. "One of the primary reasons for high fines in this area is the fact that these reefs are so delicate, so environmentally significant in terms of the fact that they're carbon sinks, that they are slow-growing and need protection," the judge said. Hinkson warned that subsequent offences carry escalating fines that "can become extremely onerous."

Glass sponge reefs provide critical habitat on the ocean floor, filter large amounts of seawater, and sequester carbon. They are brittle and recover slowly from damage caused by fishing gear. Once thought to be extinct, they were discovered in Howe Sound, prompting the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to begin closing surrounding areas to fishing in 2015. Federal Crown prosecutor Nick Elson argued the regulations are well publicized. "It's not a cheap activity to go fishing in Howe Sound. Even though this was not a commercial venture, the fines need to be high enough so as to not just be seen as another incidental cost," Elson told the court.