FANNY BAY, B.C. – Kary Guo and her family are looking for help.
Guo said from Oct. 19th to 22nd, her parents and other farmers hired by the Guo’s, dug for manila clams in the Mud Bay area, near Fanny Bay.
Guo said they were able to collect around 1800 pounds (60 bags) in six nets and four floats. On the 22nd, the crews went to collect the clams from the water but discovered that they were missing.
“There was a lot of us, so we had five diggers and my parents, so seven people total working three nights, because right now the tide only goes down (in the area) during the night. They had to dig during the night, in the cold, with a helmet and a light,” Guo said.
She noted that the family has reported the incident to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the RCMP.
“I did have a chat with somebody at the DFO, and they didn’t say much. They just said this kind of thing does happen quite often, and there isn’t a lot to do,” she said.
“It sucks because we’re still going to pay our diggers for the hard work that they have done out of our own pocket, and we lost a customer who was going to buy the product from us.”
Guo said the family believes the product was taken by boat., on October 21st between 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. or October 22nd between 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., as those are the tide times that allow for harvest.
We’ve reached out to the DFO for further comment.
