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Lacey Act violations are federal and involve violation of interstate commerce, meaning big fines, loss of licenses and equipment, and the potential for jail time. As an example, the charter boat captains down in Virginia that were fishing in the EEZ and were busted faced serious penalties that were prosecuted and enforced; if you go online, you can look up articles about the crimes and penalties imposed there.
Basically, any fishery violation needs to be taken out state jurisdiction since there are really no penalties and there is so much corruption and opportunity for corruption in state fisheries agencies. How can you have an EPO fishing commercially? They do in Massachusetts and imagine in other states as well. I once asked a Florida fisheries officer is he could fish commercially and he looked at me like I had two heads because, as he said, "that would be a conflict of interest." You think? But not up here.
By the way, the "conservation equivalency" BS that New Jersey pushed through the ASMFC Striped Bass Board allows them three fish because somehow in the world of fisheries management, three equals one - and please don't give me the hollow argument that be going for a larger size limit, you are keeping the number of fish killed down. Remember that allowing a state to keep more fish if they have a larger size limit means they are killing more brood stock - and how does that help anything?
There is no excuse: cheating is cheating and it affects all of us. And I don't want to hear how these commercial bass guys are good people; 99% of them would kill the last bass if they could. And that goes for charter captains who participate in the commercial sector using paying customers to do their dirty work.
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