Sentencing scheduled in April
Clearwater Seafoods is facing sentencing next month after pleading guilty to two provincial safety charges stemming from the 2024 death of a worker on one of its clam vessels in Nova Scotia.
According to CBC News, 36-year-old Scott Dicks of Grand Bank, N.L., died in February 2024 while working on the clam-harvesting vessel Anne Risley, which was undergoing a maintenance refit in the port of Mulgrave, N.S.
Court records cited by CBC indicate the fatal incident involved an industrial space heater being used on board during the refit. Specific technical details of how the heater was implicated in the incident have not yet been presented in open court.
Last week, Clearwater Seafoods pleaded guilty to two of five charges laid under Nova Scotia’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. The company admitted it failed to properly install, maintain or use the industrial space heater, and failed to take every precaution in its use, including providing adequate training, instruction and supervision for workers.
Company response and impact on family
In a written statement to CBC News, the company said it is “deeply saddened” by Dicks’s death and that it is co-operating fully with the authorities. Clearwater also described Dicks as “a valued and experienced member of the Clearwater clam fleet crew,” adding that its “thoughts and heartfelt sympathies remain with Scott’s family as well as his shipmates, who are a family at sea.”
Dicks left behind a wife and three children, according to the report.
An agreed statement of facts, a victim impact statement and a joint sentencing recommendation are expected to be submitted in Port Hawkesbury provincial court on April 22.
