Whats up with all the poaching???

[leptar]

1-401-222-3070 (RI state dem)

1-401-364-9124 (RI fed fish and game)..

Never did I have to call both twice in the same day... never did I have a group of non-English speaking idiots yell at me for throwing shorts back in the water either.



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Insert foot in mouth and chew is how I feel right now... 8 revisions and I still can't make it appropriate to post.

[CAL]

Was it their shorts you threw back? If so, good job

[bart]

was this on a certain island?

[leptar]

CAL, wasn't their shorts as soon as they got them landed they meet the fillet knife. I was also outnumbered aswell 7 to 1 wasn't worth getting stabbed or beating... like i need that..


bart, it was in Rhode Island over by Middletown.

[bart]

it baffles me that enforcement is basically non-existant. why wouldn't the town/state want to fine these people. it could generate all kinds of money, wouldn't it?

the last time i was at the canal i reported a person. this dood came up from the rocks with a plastic bag full of shorts. my buddy who doesn't really fish didn't understand why i was reporting him(i let the perp know too), he said the guy obviously can't afford to eat. i said well if that guy can't afford to eat why is he driving a brand new van?

firggin baffles me...

[Young Salt]

When you call and report someone like that, does the dem actually do anything about it? I know they don't do much about herring poaching

[JohnR]

Jurasdiction - the local cops don't want another enforcement issue - they'll leave it to the EPOs. And there are not enough EPOs to go around - figure about 60. Take those 60 move them into the different corners of the state with hunting, Sweetwater fishing, training programs, investigations, the saltwater shorelines and some out on boats. Now you can't have these guys & gals on 7 days so cut the number a little further but then divide the day up into 3 shifts. You now have very thin coverage to actually be around to bust someone... It's sad but that's how it is. I will say that I see the RI guys more than when I lived in Mass looking for the Mass ones....

[afterhours]

had the occasion to call ri/dem enforcement no less than 4 times this year with NO RESPONSE, always seems that the poachers travel in large tribal units. have come thisclose to confrontation.

[Pete_G]

I've run into 1 RI EPO twice this year. Once at the Colt State Park Boat ramp, and the other time on Brenton Point. Needless to say if his territory is at least between those two points it takes him a while to go from one area to another.

He's a fisherman and the first thing he asked when he searched the boat at CSP was whether we kept anything before giving the boat an extraordinarily thorough inspection. After deciding we weren't exactly someone to be concerned about we talked to him for a quite a while; he's a good guy just trying to do his job and going fishing on his days off.

When I came across him at Brenton around midnight he asked the same question first before recognzing me and the Ironman.

I'm not saying all EPO's are on the ball and asking the right questions, but there is at least one and he's got a lot of ground to cover. Also checking for shorts definitely isn't the only job they are tasked with as evidenced by boat safety inspections.

[Hooper]

I work for a local PD and asked the EPO that covers our area what I should do if I stop someone with short stripers or too many fish.

He said to sieze the fish and freeze them for evidence and to book the subject's name and he would charge them. Maybe a call to your local PD would get some results too. A lot of the guys I work with are fisherman and they would most certainly enforce fisheries regulations is they were observed.

Often times though, it's viewed as another agencies responsibility. Like with the State Police, they patrol highways. Epo, they enforce wildlife regs, we deal with our town.... sometimes we forget that a law is a law regardless of whether a violation of it happens on a highway or a waterway.

-Hooper

[SmokeBringer]

I have fished in RI for over 20 years. The 1 and only time I was ever asked to show my catch for measurement was at Ft Wetherhill 2 summers ago.

[Bob Senior]

What p!sses me off is that while all this poaching is going on by people who can't afford to eat but who can get to their fishing spots in new vans full of relatives, Friday we babied and released about a dozen 26-3/4-inch BFTs until we finally got a few over 27 inches.

How many do you think the "starving" poachers would have released? If we had had an illegal BFT aboard when we got back, what do you think the chances were that we would have been set upon by an overzealous EPO?

Then again, I think they only eat 7-inch scup.

[Nova Striper]

We face the same problem up here in Canada. No matter how many times I call DFO or DNR they say they will be there but never show up. But as soon as you try and do somthing about it then they turn around and say "leave it up to the authorities" bla blah blah. Ok then how about you show up for once!!. One fella was on the beach as I was launching the boat he was there with a bunch of kids and had about 6 shorts no bigger than 22". I told him they have to be 27" and that I was calling DNR he just looked at me and said that the kids caught them which ment they were legal, Ok buddy I jsut shook my head and was on my way. No need to get in a fist fight on the beach but deep down inside I felt like giveing him a few smacks . . Makes me sick i tell ya. You know its bad when ya got the poaching hotline # on speed dial in your cell phone.

[splshnplug]

i have found out on more than one occation around the plymouth area that a call to the state police seems to get a quicker response, the last time they two so called fishermen untill the proper agency arived. sometimes it does work.

[Clammer]

don,t get me started =================