The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have arrested a First Nations individual for striking a fisheries officer with his vehicle.
The incident occurred 26 April when Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) officers were conducting an inspection at Eel Pond in Smiths Settlement, Nova Scotia. According to RCMP, a man in an Acura TL struck the uniformed officer while he was instructing the driver to stop. The officer was not injured in the collision.
RCMP officers responded to the scene and arrested the 36-year-old driver and searched his vehicle, where they found an extendable baton and drug paraphernalia. The individual was released later after being charged with assault with a weapon.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation also reported that elvers – or young eels – were taken from the car and returned to the water. Canada’s lucrative elver fishery has invited rampant poaching and threats of violent as harvesters rush to catch and sell the small eels.
RCMP also noted that a second man present at the incident was arrested by DFO as part of a Fisheries Act investigation.
