Capt. Russell Nickerson, who while in Bermuda was fired as the skipper of the Stephen B , returned to Canada and told the Department of Fisheries where to find the Canadian longliner, Mrs. Sheila Nickerson told The Royal Gazette .

"He did play a big part in the boat getting caught,'' she said in a telephone interview from Port Joli, Nova Scotia. "That is a fact.'' Mrs. Nickerson said her husband was fired in March by the boat's owner, Mr.

Jim Redmond of Hilton Fisheries Ltd., when he demanded payment. "The only thing that happened was he wanted pay,'' she said.

Mr. Redmond denied that yesterday. He said he fired Mr. Nickerson for drinking on the job and using a racial slur.

It was not out of spite that Mr. Nickerson went to the DOF, his wife said. He reported the location of the Stephen B because he was unaware the ship was breaking the law until he returned home, she said.

"He didn't realise he was doing something wrong when he was doing it.'' Rumours had circulated in Bermuda that Mr. Nickerson returned to Nova Scotia and blew the whistle on his former colleagues still fishing near the Island.

Earlier, DOF regional fisheries director Mr. John Angel would neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Nickerson helped Canadian authorities find the Stephen B , which was boarded by officers from a fisheries patrol vessel about 250 miles north of Bermuda on March 30.

"Suffice it to say we have been investigating the activities of these vessels in any way we can since the first of January,'' Mr. Angel said. "I don't want to confirm or deny the source of any particular report.'' The Stephen B was towed to Halifax, where her captain was charged with illegal fishing in the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation convention area. Merle Goreham is to appear in Magistrates' Court in Halifax on Tuesday.

The last of the Canadian longliners, the Renee and Trevor , left St. George's yesterday and was expected to reach Nova Scotia late on Monday.

Two other longliners, the Eastpack II and the Flying Dart , headed for home on Thursday. They had received assurances from Canada that the boats would not be seized, nor their crews arrested. But there were no promises that illegal fishing charges would not be laid.

"The longer they refuse to go home, the more difficult it will be on them,'' Mr. Angel said on Thursday.

The ships' departures brought an early end to an experiment that Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons said injected nearly $200,000 into the Bermudian economy.

That was how much the Canadians spent on goods and services while in Bermuda, he said.

The Canadian Government said it was concerned the swordfish and tuna the boats caught in Bermuda cut into the country's quota as a member of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna. Canadian fishing of swordfish and tuna is not to start until summer.

Yesterday, the owner of two of the Canadian boats said it was pressure from the Americans that made the Canadians act.

Mr. Chris Malone, president of Dockside Fisheries in Woods Harbour, Nova Scotia, said the Americans threatened to stop importing swordfish from Canada unless the convention area was enforced.

Canada was 100 to 150 tons short of meeting its blue-finned tuna quota last year, though it did slightly exceed the quota for swordfish, he said. And there was no mention of the fish caught near Bermuda coming out of the Canadian quota until March.

"I have as much vested interest in the Canadian swordfish and tuna industry as anyone,'' said Mr. Malone, who also left Bermuda yesterday.