Feds bust major Chesapeake poaching operation

[LuckyLady]

Feds bust major Chesapeake poaching operation
April, 24 2009, 09:55 AM

A Virginia waterman was sentenced in U.S. District Court this week to one year and one day in prison, fined $4,000 and ordered to make $40,000 in restitution for his part in the largest striped bass poaching case in Chesapeake Bay history.

Thomas Hallock, 48, of Catharpin, Va., was ordered to surrender to marshals May 22 to begin serving his sentence, the Baltimore Sun reports. A month after his release, Hallock must pay $300 a month for 36 months, after which the court will work out the terms for the remainder of his restitution.

Hallock admitted to poaching more than 68,442 pounds of striped bass over four years, and that 10,474 pounds were taken out of season during a period when the fish spawn, according to the report.

Federal prosecutors also charged a St. Mary's County waterman and fish wholesaler and his business with falsifying catch records and illegally selling fish to buyers from New York to California.

Golden Eye Seafood and owner Robert Lumpkins were charged with four violations of the Lacey Act, which prohibits the sale of illegally caught fish across state lines, the newspaper reports.

Prosecutors charged John Struven Evans, 44, with falsifying his catch records, with the help of Golden Eye, to receive additional tags used to mark commercially caught fish.

[AquaholicFishing]

Been following this on another site. What your article doesn't say is that he made around $342,000 from his illegal harvest.

What really gets me is that of the 300K+ he is only making resitutions of 40K. We've had a few poachers here in MD that have gone to trial in the last few weeks and all of them have been given weak sentences with almost none doing any time and the fines they pay are a friggin' joke. And then they wonder why they have repeat offenders. Let's say hypothetically they make 20K before they get caught and when they are caught they pay a $500 fine. I'd sure as hell be willing to give up $500 to make 20k. The only real way to stop these guys is to take their licenses away but I have not seen that done yet.

[don'thaveaboat]

I am that someone can at least do this. But seems a little to slack, there is a friend of a friend that was thrown in prison for 5 years for taking(and not killing) a eastern hellbender. Not that I disagree with this, but seems to me killing tons of stripers of your limit would be worse then touching a hellbender.

That is a hellbender.

[mvsusaf]

That felon's commercial fishing licenses should be permanently revoked and barred from ever working in the commercial fish industry again.