When Ben Woo was charged with 11 conservation violations following a B1 Fishing event he organized on the St. Lawrence River in July 2019, it came as no surprise to anyone familiar with the bass tournament. During the weekend competition out of Clark’s Marina in Gananoque, Ontario, 195 trophy-sized bass died, primarily due to poor fish care.
Acting on reports of the deaths after the tournament had ended, Queen’s University fisheries biologist Bruce Tufts and his students, alongside a conservation officer, found 188 dead bass stuffed into 17 garbage bags in a dumpster; another seven dead fish were found on the marina grounds in the Bateau Channel.