(L) Scott Steer, 48, is currently in jail after being found guilty of numerous fishing violations earlier this year. He and his wife, Melissa Larocque (Steer), 40, owe over $1 million in fines, and each has lengthy fishing bans in place. (File photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

repeat offenders

Top Stories of 2025: notorious Gabriola Island couple’s illegal fishing

Dec 28, 2025 | 8:45 AM

NANAIMO — Described by a judge as having “the longest record of fisheries act violations in Canadian history,” a Gabriola Island man and his wife were sentenced for multiple fisheries violations this year.

Scott Stanley Matthew Steer, 48, and Melissa Dawn Larocque (Steer), 40, were found guilty in January in a BC Supreme Court in Nanaimo on multiple charges related to the illegal sale of sea cucumbers.

Steer was sentenced to six years in jail in July, while he and Larocque must split a fine of over $1 million, along with an enhanced lifetime fishing ban for Steer and a ten-year fishing ban for Larocque.

According to court documents, between Sept and Dec 2019, the numbered company sold 87,373 pounds of sea cucumbers to a legitimate business that primarily ships them overseas, with over $1 million being transferred to the numbered company.

Documentation was forged to convey that the sea cucumbers had been legally harvested.

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Larocque was the sole director behind a registered numbered company, 1215419 B.C. LTD, tied to the operation, which justice David Crerar said during sentencing served as an “alter-ego of its operating and directing mind, Mr. Steer.”

“The evidence also establishes that Melissa (Larocque) Steer was fully involved in this deceptive and evasive plan. It is appropriate to pierce the corporate veil in the present circumstances.”

An enhanced lifetime fishing ban with stronger restrictions was imposed on Steer, including not being in possession of any fish, except fish under two kilograms for personal consumption only.

The same prohibitions were applied to the numbered company for life, and on Larocque for a period of ten years.

Scott Steer has a long and repeated history of fisheries violations over the last 20 years. (Nanaimo RCMP)

However, the July sentencing wasn’t the last time they would be in court this year.

On Dec. 10, Larocque was once again in a Nanaimo courtroom, this time to be sentenced on a provincial matter for incidents which occurred while their Supreme Court case was being investigated.

She was fined $30,000 in relation to a 2021 charge of failure to comply with fishery officers.

Larocque applied for a fish receiver license under the same numbered company in 2020 and 2021.

Between March and July 2021, almost $300,000 in seafood was provided to a Richmond-based business, with bank transfers directed to the numbered company, using the couple’s Gabriola Island address.

In September 2021, both Larocque and Steer were served with a demand notice from Department of Fisheries and Oceans officers requiring them to provide detailed transactions for the seafood sales.

The couple failed to produce any records, and both were charged and found guilty during a trial in July.

Court heard how Larocque is now raising five children on her own and is already facing significant monetary penalties, including an over $1 million fine from the supreme court ruling, and over $1.6 million in back taxes.

Steer remains incarcerated and will be sentenced for the provincial charges next year.

Anyone with information on any illegal fishing activities is asked to call Fisheries and Oceans Canada toll-free at 1-800-465-4336 or email them at: DFO.ORR-ONS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

Larocque leaving the Nanaimo courtroom on May 28, 2025. (File photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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