Illegal eel meat charges dropped after seafood company pays $30,000, holds employee training

After some employee training and a deposit of $30,000 into an environmental fund, charges have been dropped against an Ontario-based seafood company accused of illegally importing European eel meat.

European eel is classified as “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List and cannot be imported without a permit from the country of export.

In 2019, Environment and Climate Change Canada wildlife enforcement officers inspected 1,450 boxes of imported eel meat declared as American eel. Through DNA testing, they discovered European eel meat mixed into the product imported by Ocean Seafood Company.

The inspection was part of an ongoing effort to curtail the illegal eel trade, according to an Environment Canada news release. Rather than go to court and face the charges, Ocean Seafood opted for an “alternative measures agreement.” These agreements are negotiated with the accused and lay out measures they must take consistent with the legislation. Once those measures are implemented, the charge is withdrawn or can be dismissed in court.

For Ocean Seafood Company, this meant putting $30,000 into the federal government's Environmental Damages Fund, a national funding program that aims to restore damage to the natural environment and wildlife conservation. The company also had to forfeit its eel shipment to the Crown to keep the illegal meat off the market and implement a training program for employees focused on complying with the law the company was charged under: the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act.

On Jan. 4, Environment and Climate Change Canada announced the charges against Ocean Seafood Company were officially dropped because all the measures in the agreement were implemented.

“The Government of Canada is committed to protecting Canadian and foreign species of wild animals and plants that may be at risk of overexploitation due to unsustainable or illegal trade,” read the release.

In 2021, B.C.-based seafood importer Pacific Gateway Holding Inc., was charged for importing illegal eel meat and slapped with a $163,776 fine.

“Globally, there is just a huge amount of illegal activity, of fraud, of … illegally caught fish,” said Sayara Thurston, seafood fraud campaigner with Oceana Canada. Thurston says Canada’s traceability standards aren’t in line with global best practices, “which leaves us open to illegally caught fish coming in or other species.”

The solution is to put boat-to-plate traceability in place for seafood, something the government committed to in 2019, said Thurston.

“Seafood has a much longer supply chain than many other products,” she said, adding that a catch can change hands half a dozen times or more before reaching the consumer.

“The longer the supply chain, the more room there is for illegal activity and for fraud because … it compounds as you go along the supply chain.”

Natasha Bulowski / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer