Question Period Note: Tenshi Seafood Limited fined

• On March 4, 2021, the Honourable Judge Bonnie Craig found Tenshi Seafood Limited, and its co-owner, Dishi Liu, guilty of violations of Canada’s Fisheries Act.
• The Court imposed fines totalled $110 000. The company was also ordered to publish a letter, addressed to all of its customers, setting out the facts related to the commission of the offences they were found guilty of.
• The charges stem from a routine inspection of Tenshi Seafood Limited on September 8, 2018, by a Fisheries and Oceans Canada fishery officer from the Steveston detachment. Once the officer was inside the plant, the owner and staff obstructed the fishery officer from conducting an inspection and attempted to destroy evidence.
• My department has a mandate to protect and conserve marine resources and prosecute offenders under the Fisheries Act.

• The charges stem from a routine inspection on September 8, 2018, by a DFO fishery officer from the Steveston detachment. Tenshi Seafood Limited is a well-established million dollar crab processing, distribution and exporting plant. On arrival at the facility, the officer observed a man running from the building and speeding away with what looked like a crab crate in the back of his vehicle. Once inside the plant, the owner, and some staff, actively obstructed the fishery officer from conducting an inspection, refused to answer questions, failed to provide the necessary paperwork, weights or volume figures from the previous sale, and attempted to destroy evidence. Several undersized crabs were found discarded in the processing plant.
• The Court ordered the fish processing company to pay a fine of $75,000, in addition to providing Fisheries and Oceans Canada with a list of its customers from the past two years. The company was also ordered to publish a letter, addressed to all of its customers, setting out the facts related to the commission of the offences they were found guilty of. Justice Craig also ordered Ms. Liu to pay a fine of $25,000. Thuong Nguyen, master of the commercial fishing vessel Dream Chaser, was found guilty in Richmond Provincial Court on January 17, 2020, for also obstructing a fishery officer, and was fined $10,000.
• All commercial seafood companies are required to follow comprehensive and stringent regulations covered under provincial and federal laws, including the Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations, and the Fisheries Act. These regulations include a Duty to Assist during an inspection. Throughout this event, the co-owner of Tenshi, Ms. Liu, refused to provide fishery officers with any of the necessary paperwork for the source of the crabs found on the premises, refused to answer questions from the officers, and attempted to destroy evidence by eating a receipt.
• It is illegal to obstruct or hinder a fishery officer, fishery guardian, or an inspector, who is carrying out duties or functions under the Federal Fisheries Act.
• One of the conditions of the 2018 Area J commercial crab licence prohibits the retention of undersized Dungeness Crabs. Mr. Nguyen is part of the Area J commercial fleet.
• Security camera equipment was seized by fishery officers who arrived at the plant to support the investigating officer and footage from this was used to establish the activities at the plant, and those of Ms. Liu and Mr. Nguyen, that hindered the officers from performing their inspection.
• The significant fines, and published acknowledgement of the violations that occurred, underscores the seriousness of violating fishing rules and regulations under Canada’s

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