Time to vent!

[eyedaddy]

Please let me vent! I have just finished reading Chris D. Dollar's article in the edition of "The Sunday Capital" and I must tell you at this time I am BOILING MAD! Not with Chris, he is an excellent writer and I have the utmost respect for him and his love and respect for OUR NATURAL RESCOURCE, but in his article there is a section Title: "POACHER GETS SLAP ON WRIST" as some of you may remember back in August 2013 State Natural Resource Police stopped a vessel returning to Sandy Point State Park in the wee hours of the morning and found 228 (YES 228) undersized Rockfish (Stripped Bass) and 30pounds of White Perch! The operator of this boat and his crew of three had no fishing license at all! I have tried to keep track of the deposition of this case since all the operator got at the time was a Citation until the case went to court.
Well their day in court finally arrived and the results it what has me and should have every other outdoors person, be it Hunter, Trapper, Fisherman that has played by the rules year after year BOILING MAD! The judge in this case (and sad to say I don't have his name yet) saw fit to only fine this poaching trio a paltry $2,000.00 fine and unsupervised probation! No revocation of fishing privileges, no confiscation of his vessel, and no jail time! As a Hunter and fisherman since I was 10 years old, and having obeyed all the rules along the way, watching Doe after Doe pass me back when it was Bucks only and watching my Daughter almost in tears when I put back a Rochfish that was 27and 15/16inches long in a 28 inch minimum time of year back overboard. Going through the moratorium with not being able to get a single fish all for the "Good of the fish Population" for five years then see what this person in a "Robe" has decided to do with these Criminals makes my blood boil! Now is the time to start writing Letters to the Editor and to every politician that will listen (good luck with that) to get this 'ROBE WEARING BANDIT off of the bench! His/Her ruling sends a message to Poachers everywhere...Hey save up some cash for the fine and keep on doing what you have been doing all along! That Judge should order a rebate for all of the License money spent by the folks that "Played by the Rules" for the past twenty years, I guarantee mine will be far over $2,000.00 and a "SLAP ON THE WRIST!
Thanks for letting me vent!

eyedaddy

[ronaultmtd]

As long as I can remember the sport fishing folks have gotten the dirty end of the stick- I have never had a citation, ever. I have always had the required licenses, the proper gear, the safety equipment, life jackets- never exceed the catch limits, nor cheated in any tournament, contest or even thought about it- like the vast majority of sport fishermen- but we constantly see cheaters in the commercial side, with illegal gill nets with ten of thousands of pounds of illegal striped bass, oyster tongers illegally harvesting in closed beds- and nothing changes- we bitch and...what?

[daddyg]

THANK YOU..for venting. We have one of the richest body's of water in the world the Chesapeake Bay and that sounds like there not even trying to protect it.

[lovett88]

It's really did make me mad that that was all that was done. Maryland needs to step up the fines like other states in order to set an example. I mean look at the oyster poachers article on the dnr sight...it's shameful that they keep catching the same guys over and over and almost nothing is done. Some are fined at least once a month. Time to step up the fines and start making examples of these scum!

[mytmouse]

What they should have done is cut a deal with them and do a sting on who they're distributing to. Although one may argue $2K is already a break. Poachers like this are doing it with a commercial purpose. If there weren't businesses buying from them then they would stop. I highly doubt these guys are peddling these fish 2 to 3 at a time. They have a buyer. Until these businesses are held accountable poaching will still be prevalent, no matter how harsh the penalty. These guys are criminals, if they get caught it's more of an inconvenience than a punishment. But on the other hand, if you slap large fines and punishments to the business owners who can't just find another source of illegal fish, it'll stop.

[eyedaddy]

Time to vent

Thanks to all, knowing that I am not the only person who feels like this helps but I just cant let this go. If anyone has someone that will listen in the State House please let me know! i am retired so i have plenty of time to knock on doors till I get some results.

Thanks again to all:

eyedaddy

[J.A. Veil]

I do not condone illegal fishing. I agree that those who keep illegal fish or who fish without a license are lawbreakers and are worthy of enforcement. However, this thread seems to have gotten off track into a discussion/rant about commercial fishermen who are scofflaws. I too read Chris Dollar's column this morning. Here is the section of the column that talks about the poachers:

"Poacher Gets Slap on Wrist: Let me see if I have this straight: you can get caught red-handed poaching 228 undersized stripers, and all you get is a $2,000 fine and unsupervised probation? When I read the sentence handed down to Hervin O. Nunez-Aleman for that very offense, I thought it must be some kind of April Fool’s prank come early. You may recall Nunez-Aleman was busted by state resource police last August, returning to Sandy Point State Park in the wee hours with a boatload of illegal rockfish. Oh, and Nunez-Aleman and his misfit crew of three, none of whom had a fishing license, also had 30 pounds white perch.

Surely his boat was confiscated and he lost his fishing privileges? Nope and no, according to the DNR statement, which read, “the individual pled guilty and the judge in the case gave him “probation before judgment.” This resolution means that no administrative penalties can be applied. The Department can only apply administrative penalties to cases that result in a ‘guilty’ disposition and therefore the individual in this case is not eligible for any administrative penalties.” CCA-MD called the sentence a “disgrace,” and a DNR insider labeled it a “very unfortunate” decision.

Whoever thinks this was a simple case of four anglers — innocently unaware of state creel limits — who were subsistence fishing is either pitifully naive or colossally stupid. Had not the Natural Resources Police intervened, my guess is cash was going to change hands somewhere along the line. Why the judge levied such a tepid sentence is beyond comprehension, especially since there’s been such a big push to bust poachers; it’s downright shameful."


Other than Chris' opinion expressed in his final paragraph, I did not get the impression that the persons involved were regular watermen or commercial fishermen. I believe they were recreational anglers who chose to ignore the fishing rules. They got caught and received a punishment that seemed to be too lenient to Chris and many readers. The limited amount of information from the column does not allow me to determine if those fishermen intended to sell their catch or not (we do not know the sizes of the rockfish other than that they were undersized, but we don't know how much under the 18" limit they were. If most were 12" to 14", they would weigh less than a pound each and not produce a gigantic amount of edible meat. Likewise 30 lbs of perch sounds like a lot, but that could be just 50 to 100 perch -- not too much different than what some anglers often bring home). According to the column the guilty parties included the captain of the boat and three others. Split four ways, the total weight of the catch does not sound to me much more than what family and friends might eat in a few days.

There are plenty of other examples in which licensed commercial watermen have shown chronic disdain for the rules. The fact that they get off with slaps on the wrist is quite aggravating to many of us. But the specific case in question clearly did not involve truly commercial fishermen. We can all be angry about poachers, whether commercials or recs. But lets not automatically assume that any individual who is caught for poaching is a commercial fishermen.

[mytmouse]

John, I was not referring to commercial fisherman at all. What I was saying is that there are poachers who are serving as illegal distributors to either resellers or restaurants. At least that is my thought. Now is it purely speculative? Yes, of course. But in no means am I knocking legal commercial waterman. My conclusion comes from the amount of repeat offenders. With even the "slight slaps" to the wrist, the average person would curtail their activity, UNLESS the benefit outweighed the fines/penalties... a la getting paid by selling them. Even if the Rockfish were just 14" long, that's still 456 fillets that to a shop that sells fish sandwiches equates to a lot of meat... especially if you're getting a good deal on them.

We don't know if the guys were selling them or having one hell of a fish fry. Either way, they were wrong. But in my gut, I just think their intentions were to sell these fish illegally. Again, I'm not arguing that they are commercial fishermen. I did not assume that they were, what I assumed is that they were selling them illegal.

[Memory Maker]

They are Hispanic hook and line fishermen .........not commercial ... It seems to be a cultural thing ........ How many times have you seen them keeping everything they catch ........... I know how it sounds and it's not everyone ........ But there are a bunch that just keep everything they catch ......... Bad part is that these guys did it before

[monocacykayak]

Also we have to take into fact is, how the law is written . The judge may have handed down a sentence very close to what was written in the law . Judges interpret the law how it is written so he may not be the bad guy .The bad guys are the legislators who wrote the law which describes the penalties which are not severe enough as far as we are concerned . What we need to push for is more severe penalties written into the law in the future . This is were have to push the state legislators to make changes. I am not a lawyer but I am married to one so this is our interpretation.

[DOGFISH]

Ahh, we have now gotten down to the problem. It is not the poachers fault, it is not the judge and possibly we should blame the legislators, and just maybe the poachers were hungry. We should probably look at ourselves. We vent and write here, but not to the legislators. It doesn't matter who the poachers were, commercial or otherwise, they got off light. So take the time out to write your legislators. You can bet the commercial fisherman write letters and e-mail legislators when there are certain bills in the legislature. They also have a strong lobby. For sport fisherman, it is just that a sport or recreation. The sport fisherman tends to be just the opposite, disorganized. I have seen this for many, many years. We value every fish as if it were a valuable resource. Yet the number of fish taken in nets is just heartbreaking. So it is just not the illegal, it is also the legal aspect of what goes on in Maryland. Maryland is just not user friendly to the recreational fisherman. In Maryland the recreational fisherman is taken for granted, possibly due to our love of the sport and lifestyle. So, as we have seen here, we have found the problem and it is us.

[Mmacro]

I'm a big believer in second chances for an angler that has one fish under size or out of season. But after that there should be very specific penalties for individuals that violate theses rules. And there is no excuse for individuals with massive amounts of illegally caught fish.
It really bothers me that we support the fishery with our licenses and fees we pay to enjoy our sport, yet these individuals walk all over that.
Two posts have made very important points: what are judges allowed to impose as penalties, and what are we as a group doing to vocalize our disappointment in the system?
I suggest that we start a petition after we discover what the law allows judges to do and send that in to the prosecutors and judges. I also suggest we all start writing officials individual letters... Even if they are a form letter. And some of us can start writing to the newspapers to get letters to the editor published.
I'm a public affairs NCO in the Army and they have me in Georgetown's PR and Corporate Communication program right now... I just finished a semester of writing OpEds and other items that we are all talking about on this thread. If anyone's interested we can coordinate a combined effort to actually do something...

[DanMarino]

^ I would support that Mmacro.

[Mmacro]

Besides writing... It would help if members can go to trials of offenders so there is a presence for higher penalties. I've got some ideas rattling around my head now about how we can organize to write and make our voice heard.
If your reading this and are serious about speaking up PM me and I'll respond with some ideas. It involves a bit of Internet research so I can write some stuff up... But it should have an impact.

[Runnin]

They did get off easy. Rockfish sells in Seafood Markets for over $12.00/ lb.. That makes it tempting for poachers. These laws to protect the fisheries are only as good as the enforcement.