ILLEGAL STRIPED BASS SEIZURE SPURS SHUT DOWN OF FEBRUARY GILL NET SEASON

[eppefour]

ILLEGAL STRIPED BASS SEIZURE SPURS SHUT DOWN OF FEBRUARY GILL NET SEASON

DNR, stakeholders offer reward for information leading to rockfish poachers' arrest



Annapolis, MD (February 4, 2011) — The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has shut down the February striped bass gill net season after Natural Resources Police (NRP) confiscated more than 10 tons of illegally caught striped bass in two days. NRP seized the 20,016 pounds of rockfish from four illegally anchored gill nets found near Bloody Point Light, south of Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay.



“Wanton illegal behavior cannot, will not be tolerated,” said Secretary John Griffin. “The people of Maryland have invested far too much time, effort and money into restoring striped bass, our State fish. These poachers are stealing from every Maryland citizen... including from our honest, hardworking watermen who follow the law. I particularly want to commend our dedicated Natural Resources Police officers, many of whom staked out the sites overnight, during terrible weather conditions."



Maryland’s commercial striped bass fishery is managed on a quota system, in cooperation with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission; the commercial gill net quota for February is 354,318 pounds. When the illegally harvested striped bass confiscated by the NRP were deducted from the quota, DNR was forced to immediately shut down the fishery. The fishery will remain closed until DNR can determine the extent of illegal nets out on the Bay and the amount of striped bass caught in those nets.



“Watermen are allowed to catch about 300 pounds of rockfish per day. We seized 20,000 pounds. That means these poachers are stealing 66 days of work from honest watermen,” said DNR Fisheries Service Director Tom O’Connell.



The State, along with the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), The Maryland Watermen’s Association, the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen’s Association and the Maryland Charter Boat Association, is offering a reward of more than $7,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of a person or persons responsible for setting these anchored gill nets in the vicinity of Bloody Point Light. Funding for the reward will come from dedicated funding as well as contributions from these stakeholder groups, who are publicly denouncing these crimes.



“Today’s announcement demonstrates that illegal fishing that steals the resource from all Marylanders will not be tolerated,” said CCA Maryland Executive Director Tony Friedrich. “We look forward to working with the Department and other stakeholders to insure that the penalties for these types of crimes are strengthened and those responsible are held fully accountable.”



“The Maryland Watermen’s Association is here to protect the honest fisherman,” said Association President Larry Simns. “We’d like to do anything in our power to catch the person responsible for this and we’d hope they’d lose their license.”



“The Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association is extremely disheartened and outraged over the events of the past several days,” said Executive Director Dave Smith. “This type of flagrant disregard for the law and our vital resource must end. The MSSA is working with the Department and other stakeholder groups to put in place deterrents and meaningful consequences for these types of crimes.”



The NRP found the first anchored gill net on Monday, January 31 at 2 p.m., the day before the February striped bass gill net season opened. Officers began a surveillance detail and after 17 hours without activity officers pulled up the net, which was full of rockfish. Officers continued pulling the net and offloading the fish until 9 p.m., when 6,121 pounds of fish were taken out of the 900 yards of illegal anchored gill net; 400 pounds were given to state biologists for use in an expanded gender sampling survey, and 5,721 pounds were sold.



Officers located another net at about 9 p.m. near the first net and began to pull it up immediately. NRP continued to load the net and fish into patrol boats throughout the night. While loading the second net, officers found two additional nets. The NRP worked until 5 p.m. Wednesday evening, landing an additional 13,895 pounds of illegally caught fish.



Officers also recovered 2,100 yards of anchored gill net from the Choptank River on Sunday, January 30, and 100 yards of anchored gill net from the mouth of the Chester River on Thursday. These nets had a few fish that were released alive.



Information on this crime may be called into the Natural Resources Police Catch-a-Poacher Hotline at 800-635-6124. Callers may remain anonymous.



Photos of the seized rockfish will soon be available at http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/dnrnews/...411_photos.asp.

[captnemo]

Good to hear, sucks for the honest waterman, but it will motivate them to catch the offenders and adhere to the laws.

[blacktide]

Great so punish all the guys doing the right thing! Oh yeah that makes sense so the all might as well set their gear now! Management at it's best!

[captnemo]

Great so punish all the guys doing the right thing! Oh yeah that makes sense so the all might as well set their gear now! Management at it's best!

Tough luck, you abuse the resource you get shut down, I am glad DNR had some balls for once and is sending a clear message. F'em shut them all down.

[bigfish4me]

Good move by the DNR.....between the reward and the honest guys loosing money because of the guys that are playing outside the lines.....lets see how long it takes for the culprits to get caught.....someone knows whos nets they were, the honest guys are not just going to sit around and loose money when they know who was cheating the system.

[hubris 1]

Everyone has detention until the person that put chalk dust on my chair admits it. Thats how they do it in 3rd grade.

[bigfish4me]

Everyone has detention until the person that put chalk dust on my chair admits it. Thats how they do it in 3rd grade.

Lmao.....your right, I see it like this, its no different than hopping on a charter to chunk the canyon and tying up to a high flyer.....yes its wrong.......been on a company trip on a very prominent cape may charter boat that belly stripped a dozen throw back flounder and tossed them over the side.....the guys that do it by the books for a living know who plays out side the lines....once it hits them where it counts.....the wallet.....watch them start singing like canaries...now I am certainly no snitch, but I go to work for one reason and that is to make money....not friends, the honest guys cant even go to work now and they will sing lke a chior soon.....bet on it.

[seapower]

As a rule most " comm fishing" community's are very small and tight. They may not agree with what has been done, or who did it, but I'd be suprised to see one sell another one out. The guy's in uniform will probably have to figure it out. Or could it be that a group like CCA set the net's just to help spoil the soup???? I would put nothing past those folk's. They have an agenda and if you're not with em', you're against em' period. Frank

[bigfish4me]

As a rule most " comm fishing" community's are very small and tight. They may not agree with what has been done, or who did it, but I'd be suprised to see one sell another one out. The guy's in uniform will probably have to figure it out. Or could it be that a group like CCA set the net's just to help spoil the soup???? I would put nothing past those folk's. They have an agenda and if you're not with em', you're against em' period. Frank

Thats an angle I never even considered Frank......I have nothing but respect for the men that make their living off the water.......they work hard long hours and they certainly are not getting rich doing it.....it bugs the crap out of me to see honest hard working men given a black eye by people with either an agenda or a lack of morals. Every one loves the commercial fisherman when the fresh bunker arrives at the bait shop......they love the clammers when the fresh bushels of clam are there.....but hate them any other time......not me brother, I respect the men that do it right!

[seapower]

Can't say and won't say that that's what happened, but I said the very same thing to my self over and over with all the 'evidence" picture's that were shown. That's all new webbing! It look's like none of that stuff has ever seen the deck of a boat, net barrel or net reel. If "I" was gonna break the law and set in closed water's, you can bet it would have been with the oldest most worn out stuff I had. That's unless of course all you happened to have was "new" stuff. Not many commercial guy's have just new stuff. I also happen to know how much it used to cost me to put a "stand" of webbing together, not something I'd care much about loosing either. Not sayin' it's so, just something to think about. Just sayin' what caught my eye. Frank