effing poachers

[Swimmer]

I remember being in court years ago when F & W guys brought in a lobster poacher. An agreed upon deal had been made for the finding. A $25.00 per lobster fine was in place. When the defendent and the F & W guys went before the judge they announced the agreement and the judge said o.k., guilty, filed, $25.00 fine. The F & W guys realized the judge misunderstood. Judge thought total fine was $25.00 dollars. I can't remember how many lobsters were poached but the total fine was well over $4,000.00. The judge choked when he realized just how many lobsters the guy got vaught with. $25.00 is cheap. Getting caught with any poached fih or crustacean should be a minimum of $100.00 dollars or more, depending on how understocked the poached species is.

[l.i.fish.in.vt]

as far as poaching goes what do you think the annual fish poached by recs amount to.undersized fish and over the limit fish.lets look at both sides of the picture.i wouldn't be surprised if recs keep as many shorts as they do legals coast wide.if fines aren't big enough,its just a cost of doing business for the commercial guy.and the recrational poachers just figure what are the chances of getting caught.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by l.i.fish.in.vt

as far as poaching goes what do you think the annual fish poached by recs amount to.undersized fish and over the limit fish.lets look at both sides of the picture.i wouldn't be surprised if recs keep as many shorts as they do legals coast wide.if fines aren't big enough,its just a cost of doing business for the commercial guy.and the recrational poachers just figure what are the chances of getting caught.

I just remember those highway signs
in certain areas that read 1000.00 dollar fine for littering
and once they got posted it was spotless

i do think fines for commercial volumes of fish should be higher than
someone possessing a single fish ... some kind of scale...

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by l.i.fish.in.vt

as far as poaching goes what do you think the annual fish poached by recs amount to.undersized fish and over the limit fish.lets look at both sides of the picture.i wouldn't be surprised if recs keep as many shorts as they do legals coast wide.if fines aren't big enough,its just a cost of doing business for the commercial guy.and the recrational poachers just figure what are the chances of getting caught.

As a rec guy, I'm not going to lose my livelihood if the SB fishery gets shut down due, in part, to other rec guys poaching. I love fishing but if I need a new hobby to be consistently unsuccessful at, there's always golf.
On the other hand, legitimate commercial guys that play by the rules have every incentive to want to stop poaching by the recs and other comms. Should the fishery crash again (more like, when it crashes again), it's their livelihood that will be lost.

I hate whenever someone keeps fish that they shouldn't. Be it tuna guys keeping an extra fish, striped bass comm guys hiding fish in secret compartments, illegal netting, the trawlers, recreational guys keeping 3 fish, the asians at the canal filling a cooler with schoolies, the group always at the east end of the canal that has their kid transport short fish and extra fish to their van at 2am... you name it. Just about every single time I witness it, I make the call to the EPs. Unfortunately, they've only ever shown up once.

The horribly underfunded EPs can't be everywhere. We need to act as our own "Neighborhood Watch." They pay attention to where a bulk of calls are coming from and are more likely to be around the 'hotspots' when you need them. Talked to an EP this last fall at the canal. I asked him why no one ever shows up when people call. He said often times there is only one of them on duty for the entire Cape. Tough to enforce anything being that short of manpower.