An RCMP officer on patrol along the Sooke Rotary Pier early Friday saved 125 under-sized crabs.
The officer found three men illegally fishing off the pier along with buckets of freshly caught Dungeness and red rock crabs – most of them young females too small for capture.
Of the 125 crabs seized 124 were undersized and 110 of those were female.
Three men and one woman from View Royal were charged under the federal Fisheries Act and issued an order to appear in court.
The crabs were released back into the ocean.