COUNTY - Off-loading fish in the middle of the night will cost a fishing captain $3,000.

 Arthur Dakin is from Overton, Yarmouth County, but brought his catch ashore at the Riverport wharf on September 20 of last year.

 Fishery officers had staked out the wharf and watched as a man left Capt. Dakin's boat with a garbage bag around 1:30 a.m. They later determined the bag contained about 56 pounds of fish fillets.

 Capt. Dakin, 70, was still on board the boat where officers found a further 24 pounds of fish fillets. The crew had apparently split the catch.

 The captain wasn't in Bridgewater provincial court on June 27, but had a lawyer appear on his behalf and enter a guilty plea to a charge of off-loading fish without a dockside monitor being present.

 An additional count of possessing fish with the skin removed so the species was unidentifiable was dropped by the Crown.

 Capt. Dakin had no prior convictions for fisheries violations.

 The fine was the same amount handed down in November to James Dale Mossman of Lower Rose Bay, the crew member caught carrying the bags from the boat.

posted on 07/05/11