Fisheries Minister: Illegal lobster fishing promotes organised crime

Nova Scotia's fisheries minister says the federal government's failure to crack down on illegal off-season fishing in some of the country's most lucrative lobster fishing areas has given a boost to organized crime and “terrorized the population in a section of the province's southwest.”

Kent Smith made these comments last week in a letter to his federal counterpart, Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier, in which he claimed that illegal fishing had become “entrenched” in the Clare region and surrounding areas.

Smith said in an interview that his letter did not refer to the Sipekne'katik First Nation's fisheries, which is now the subject of a lawsuit and is currently being conducted outside federal regulations in St. Marys Bay, which borders the coastal communities of Clare.

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