A paddleboarder who got too close to a pod of orcas near Tofino, B.C., has been found guilty of unlawfully disturbing killer whales, a breach of the Federal Fisheries Act.
Christie Jamieson, 40, was fined $2,500 earlier this month following the incident in Ucluelet Harbour, off the west coast of Vancouver Island, in January 2021.
Jamieson testified she did not know the rules around distance limits.
But provincial court Judge Alexander Wolf said in his ruling that it didn’t matter — even if a person has never heard of Canada’s Marine Mammal Regulations, they are still bound to them by law, he said.
“If you fish, learn the regulations. If you hunt, learn the regulations. If you want to be around whales or other marine mammals, learn the regulations,” Wolf said in his judgment.
It is prohibited to approach marine mammals on a boat, paddleboard, or other vessel to interact, feed or swim with them, according to the Fisheries Act.
Wolf — a member of the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, located on Gilford Island — said in his judgment that according to the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations teachings, orcas are considered guardians of the sea, and it is forbidden to disturb them.
Guardians of the sea
The guilty verdict was delivered Tuesday in Ucluelet, B.C., a town of about 2,000 people, 35 kilometres southeast of Tofino.
Among the evidence against Jamieson was a video posted to YouTube of her approaching the pod.
The video shows a person with long blond hair out on a paddleboard while killer whales come to the surface near her. According to the judge, there were hundreds of people lined up around the harbour to watch orcas that day. The video was used as evidence in court.
WATCH | Woman gets close to orca pod near Ucluelet, B.C.:
Wolf said at times, it appears as though she’s about 50 metres away from the pod — well within the 200-metre buffer zone required by law.
Multiple witnesses also confirmed seeing Jamieson put her paddleboard in the water, the judgment says, and paddle toward the orcas.
Jamieson agreed but testified that she thought as the creatures were leaving the harbour, they turned back and swam toward her. She said she was not comfortable paddling away.
It would have been different, the judge said, if she had already been out on her paddleboard and minding her own business when the killer whales happened to swim by. In that case, there wouldn’t have been a charge, he said.
In a statement after the ruling, Fisheries and Oceans said, “the illegal activity, plus social media posts of the incident, and images captured on personal cameras and devices” were reported to its observation and reporting system.
“These reports helped lead to the successful conviction of this incident,” it said.
Detering others
The Crown sought a $10,000 fine, but the judge took into account Jamieson’s financial situation and the fact that she did not have a criminal record or a history of breaching fisheries regulations.
The judge said the $2,500 fine should serve as a deterrent for others who might consider approaching a pod of whales too closely.
“The lesson for all of us is sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes mean committing an offence,” the judge said. “When we commit an offence, there will be penalties.”
