Tog Bust

[JohnR]

On Monday, November 19, 2018, Massachusetts Environmental Police Officers conducted a fishery inspection on a chartered fishing boat out of Hyannis Harbor with six out-of-state paying customers onboard. The customers catch was inspected as they departed the vessel and returned to their vehicle.


Upon completion of the inspection they were found to be in possession of seventy tautog; fifty-five of which were under the legal minimum size retention limit of sixteen inches. The tautog limit for charter vessels is currently five fish per person with a minimum size limit of sixteen inches.


Each involved party received civil citations and the illegal catch was seized and destroyed due to health safety concerns resulting from the condition of the fish.

[Sea Dangles]

Guppy?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by Sea Dangles

Guppy?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Hahaha - nahh he has an alibi

[Got Stripers]

Charter and/or commercial license should be pulled and he shouldn't be able to renew for at least 5 years, if not life.

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by Sea Dangles

Guppy?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Smart arz!

I shared this this am on face whatever,,, why are the name of boat and capt not included?

[dannyplug1]

two questions can they take the captains credentials away? and why don't they?

[tlapinski]

Originally Posted by dannyplug1

two questions can they take the captains credentials away? and why don't they?

From my understanding, no they can't because the law doesn't allow for it. In order to levy higher fines and penalties the laws must be changed. Just like you can't take someone's car for speeding as the law doesn't allow for it, you can't (currently) revoke a captain's license because his fares were found in possession of over the bag limit of fish.

Massachusetts recently increased the penalty for violating marine fishery laws, which is a step in the right direction, but it's still not enough in my opinion.

Increased Marine Fishery Fines and Penalties Take Effect

Effective November 7, 2018, new non-criminal, criminal and civil fines penalties for violating marine fishery laws and regulations are now in effect. The new modernized penalty schedule was enacted in 2018 as part of An Act Promoting Climate Change Adaptation, Environmental and Natural Resource Protection and Investment in Recreational Assets and Opportunity, and represents a necessary step to improve fisheries management and conservation.

The fine schedule for non-criminal tickets has been doubled. Previously, the fines were scaled at $50, $100 and $200 depending on the violation; these fines are now $100, $200 and $400. Enforcement officers also may now issue an additional $10 fine on top of the base fine per non-compliant fish. The additional $10 fine applies to all regulated marine fish species except for bi-valve shellfish.

The previously outdated and complicated criminal penalty schedule has been greatly simplified. Now, nearly all criminal violations will result in a $400 to $10,000 fine and up to 2.5 years in jail. However, longstanding criminal fines specific to lobsters, eels and shellfish remain on the books.

Lastly, the law establishes the authority for the Commonwealth to assess a civil penalty of up to $10,000. This new enforcement tool will be reserved for the most egregious marine fishery violations that the Attorney General may decide does not warrant criminal prosecution but does require a more substantial economic penalty than that provided by a non-criminal citation. Such cases would be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s office on behalf of the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) or the Environmental Police.

This new penalty schedule, coupled with DMF’s increased efforts to sanction the commercial and recreational fishing permits for fisheries violations, will help curb the poaching of marine fish species in Massachusetts.

[DZ]

Obviously fines are not enough. I don't necessarily like this but the time has come to publicly shame and ridicule known offenders on Social Media sites to hopefully impact their businesses. Fishing organizations/clubs/associations should ostracize offenders and not accept advertising from any offender.

[Clammer]

didn,t they already get a couple of Ny charter boats for similar violations .but that is nothing new . For the most part they don,t give a #^&#^&#^&#^& …….....they live in the EEZ killing stripers >>>>>>>>>>&&&&&&&& it seems the RIDEM & c/C Play

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by dannyplug1

two questions can they take the captains credentials away? and why don't they?

Captains license is a federal license nothing the state can do about it. But I was talking to Dan McKiernan the other day and he said according to MA law they can charge the captain with a fishery violation, I wonder why they didn't do it?

[Got Stripers]

Slap on the wrist and oh well we lost this trip, cost of doing illegal business.