DFO using drones to detect illegal fishing in Gulf of St. Lawrence region

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is starting to use drone technology to gather evidence of illegal activity in the Gulf of St. Lawrence region.

"It's like having a fishery officer 300 feet in the air," said Matthew MacEwen, a Charlottetown-based conservation protection supervisor with DFO.

On Oct. 17, a person appearing in court in eastern P.E.I. was given a $5,000 fine and suspended from fishing for the first seven days of the 2025 lobster fishing season. The offence was tampering with lobster fishing gear in Lobster Fishing Area 26A, which stretches from the northeast tip of Prince Edward Island down to the north shore of Nova Scotia and west to the central south shore of P.E.I.

And the culprit's actions were caught on video gathered by a Department of Fisheries and Oceans drone.

"The offences occurred during the 2024 fishing season and the images were captured by remotely piloted aircrafts," a DFO social media post about the Georgetown court case said. "This was the first time drone imagery was used in court in our Gulf region."

MacEwen said the department has been using drones to monitor a number of fisheries in the Gulf Region since 2021, but this was the first time that footage has been used in a court case. 

He said the drone complements the rest of the department's surveillance programs.

"We have our planes and our helicopters that are monitoring the fisheries," he said. "But now we also have our drones."

Fisheries officers can operate them from land in some cases, he said: "It just expands our presence and our surveillance."

MacEwen said gear tampering is common in lobster fishing areas around Prince Edward Island, and DFO's officers dedicate many hours to the conflicts it produces.

"It depends on the area and it depends on the year, but for the last, we'll say, last number of years it's been a major issue in our area," he said.

DFO has drones of different sizes, with some able to fly at night. Dron missions usually involve teams of two people, a flight plan, and lots of co-ordination with any nearby airports, MacEwen said. 

"They also have to come up with their safety procedures, so if there's a flyaway, they know what airport they're calling."

MacEwen said DFO uses a lot of different techniques to stem illegal conduct on the country's waterways, with the end goal of protecting fish stocks and the future of the industry.