Officers found 91 unattended trout hooks in two ponds near Port Hope Simpson, Labrador in an illegal fishing operation that a fisheries supervisor said is unique in his decade-plus of experience.
The 91 hooks are too many hooks allowed for one fisherman, and hooks are also required to be monitored at all times.
Mark Simms, the area's DFO detachment supervisor, said he couldn't provide too many details, as the investigation is ongoing, but said the lines were found in early May, about 35 kilometres southwest of Port Hope Simpson, by officers on snowmobile patrol.
I've never seen the sheer number of lines like we're seeing here.- Mark Simms
They were a startling find, said Simms.
"Ninety-one hooks is a significant number, and something which should be noted and anybody with a keen eye who saw the pictures would note, that all 91 hooks were actually baited with trout," he said.
"So that in itself is actually a significant number of trout destroyed in an effort to catch more trout, and when you've got 91 set hooks, the potential impact can be pretty great."
The scale of the operation is surprisingly large, said Simms.
"That was 91 separate holes," he said. "Somebody took the time, obviously with a power auger, to drill 91 holes throughout the ice, across these two ponds, to set the hook."
It was obvious that some of the hooks had been there for some time, he said.
"They were frozen in," he said. "This was a concerted effort to catch what I think would have been a significant number of trout."
DFO believes it's the work of one or two people — no more than a very small group, he said.
"We don't know who these people are or where they're from or anything else to indicate who it might be," he said.
Unmonitored hooks aren't allowed because there's no way for fishers to ensure they're adhering to daily catch limits, said Simms.
Six trout caught, released alive
"If you're not closely and constantly attending those lines, you don't know how many trout are going to get on there, but obviously if somebody's setting over 90 hooks, they had no intention of probably adhering to the bag limit in the first place, but it's bothersome."
There were six trout found on the lines, which were released alive.
Simms said he's never seen anything like the scope of the setup in the more than 13 years he's been in Labrador and the hundreds of checks he's personally conducted.
"I've never seen the sheer number of lines like we're seeing here," he said.
Given Labrador's large size and increased access, with large snowmobiles, more roads, and increased transmission lines — as well as increased interest in coming to Labrador to fish — the DFO needs the public's help, Simms said.
"We can't be everywhere."