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CANMORE — An Ontario man who swam with endangered Banff Springs snails — smoking a cigar while he bathed and then claiming God told him to do it — pleaded guilty in a Canmore court Wednesday.

He was fined $4,500.

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Bailey Thomas Townsend, 27, admitted to swimming in the thermal pool in Banff National Park on Nov. 26, 2014.

“It is was it is,” he said outside court after the hearing. “I didn’t hurt no snails, though.”

Judge Les Grieve heard Townsend was warned by Parks Canada staff that he couldn’t swim in the thermal pool at the Cave and Basin National Historic Site, but he returned later in the day and ignored the No Swimming signs posted around the pool.

“He walked up and proceeded to enter and swim,” said federal Crown prosecutor Adam Zelmer, noting Townsend lit a cigar and smoked it while he swam.

Photo by Dana Albrecht / For the Calgary Herald

It was reported to Parks Canada dispatch and Townsend was apprehended by two wardens in the parking lot.

“He immediately stated he did not want a lawyer,” Zelmer said. “God had directed him to swim in the pool.”