FISHERIES FOLLOWING TREND

DFO/In less than a week officers have seized poached sturgeon from
residences searched for grow-ops

Department of Fisheries and Oceans officers believe there's a trend
underway that involves both poaching, usually sturgeon, and marijuana grow
operations.

That's not as odd as it seems in light of two recent investigations which
resulted in the seizure of $850,000 worth of marijuana and several sturgeon
found in the suspects' homes.

Last week, the Delta police seized $350,000 worth of marijuana and during
the search, found a live sturgeon in the suspect's kitchen fridge.
Fisheries officers, who were called by police, were able to rescue the
fish. They later released the sturgeon into the Fraser River.

In a reversal of last week's bust, on Saturday, fisheries officers found a
man poaching sturgeon in the Fraser next to River Road in Delta and
followed him home to Surrey, where the DFO found an active marijuana grow
op worth $500,000, and two dead sturgeon.

"I think we have a major trend here,'" said concerned fisheries officer
Paul Cottrell. "We need to stop this. They're even poaching the early
Stuart (salmon), and the sturgeon simply can't take this kind of poaching
pressure anymore," Cottrell said.

The fisheries officers had a similar seizure last year in which the trend
of poaching and marijuana grow operations were in evidence. The suspects in
that case were found guilty on 9 of 13 counts.

"We're at three for three," Cottrell said of the seizures.

"What may be happening is these guys are poaching to make ends meet," said
Cottrell's partner, fisheries officer Rob Graham. He believes organized
crime is involved given the size of the grow-ops they've found in the
poaching investigations. The man arrested Saturday most probably played a
caretaker role at the grow-op. "This particular guy was destitute and
there's no way he could handle a grow-op that size, on his own," Graham said.

While there's an open sturgeon fishery, it's catch and release only.
Fisheries officers said the sturgeon sells on the black market for $100 to
$500 a piece. They added, the female roe can go for thousands of dollars.
Delta Sgt. Ken Mills, who was at the drug seizure in North Delta last week,
said he's been told the coveted eggs, which are marketed as caviar, can
sell for up to $6,000 a kg.

While Delta South Richmond MP John Cummins congratulates the officers on
the recent investigations, he doesn't expect to see those kind of results
too often. The fisheries officers, investigating Saturday's incident,
worked 24-hours without overtime compensation.

"These guys are dedicated and it's not the first time they have put hours
in and they're not getting compensated," said an angry Cummins.

The Canadian Alliance MP and opposition fisheries critic, has long lamented
the cutbacks at DFO. "They've got no budget for overtime and their
enforcement budget has been cut drastically," Cummins said. "The public
makes reports to DFO and they're not able to follow-up because it's beyond
office hours. They operate 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and most of the illegal
activity is going on at night. It's not as if these poachers are out there
in the middle of the day poaching."

There are an estimated 47,000 sturgeon in the Fraser River, a far cry from
the teeming schools of fish that called the Fraser River home, at the
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