Over 50 violations found during North Pacific illegal fishing crackdown

Over 50 violations found during North Pacific illegal fishing crackdown

Inspections also found poor labour practices, including overworking, and withholding of documents

Fisheries and Oceans Canada found a significant amount of violations involving sharks in the North Pacific, including finning, during its 2026 illegal fishing crackdown operation.

Officials say there were 52 violations out of the 30 high-sea boardings and international inspections, made between May and July.

The inspection efforts are aimed at ensuring adopted rules for international waters are being upheld by fishing vessels, according to authorities.

"Canada's inspection work detected a significant number of violations within the tuna fishery, specifically targeting shark," said Sean Wheeler, the agency's chief of international operations for conservation and protection.

"This is consistent with a couple of years of violations that we've seen around shark finning practices," he added. "Unreported catch bycatch, discard violations — which raised the concern about the sustainability of these fisheries, and also the impact on things like sharks and dolphins."

Wheeler says the practice of finning sharks — where fishers remove the fins, and discard the rest of the animal — continues to be problematic. He says it's a focus of the agency's inspections on vessels.

He added that sharks weren't being logged after being caught, which is a consistent practice found in the shark and dolphin finning industry.

Wheeler said there were also signs of poor labour standards on inspected vessels.

This included excessive work hours, unhygienic conditions, lack of proper sleeping areas and identity documents being withheld.

The agency wouldn't disclose what countries the boats inspected were from, but said it was countries who would typically operate in that area of the Pacific Ocean.

Wheeler says their inspection information is shared with international partners, who deal with problems internally.

"We have seen from our previous year's operation significant fines now being implemented, and including up to jail time for a Canadian investigation that was conducted last year," he said.

'Significant' decrease in pelagic fish catches

Part of the operation was to monitor the ecosystem in the North Pacific.

Wheeler says one issue that was observed is a significant decrease in the catch of pelagic fish – like sardines, mackerel, Pacific saury, and Pacific salmon – despite the same number of vessels actively fishing them.

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"These are very important forage fish for the entire ecosystem," he said.

"We need to work with our science colleagues to determine if this is a seasonality change, if there's been a shift in migration pattern, or if there's a larger ecosystem impact happening," Wheeler added.

Growing relationship with Japan

This year's operation was conducted in partnership with inspectors from the U.S., Japan and South Korea.

It came after Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Japanese government officials earlier this year to discuss trade and defence ties.

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Peter Lambertucci, the national chief enforcement officer for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, says that a number of developments have occurred within the two countries' enforcement relationship.

This includes the signing of two memorandums of co-operation for information sharing.

"Japan sent officers to train with our Canadian officers in Victoria. We held a joint workshop in Tokyo with the U.S. and Japanese partners, and Japan deployed officers to our aircraft," said Lambertucci.

"In addition, for the first time, Japan hosted one of our fishery officers aboard their patrol vessel."

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Isabella Calissi is a multi-media journalist with CBC Victoria. She previously worked with CBC North in the Yukon. You can contact her at: isabella.calissi@cbc.ca.