Wild oyster pillage by outlaws continues

[SteveL]

More alarming poaching news--who knows the extent of these activities in the dark of the night and in poor visibility, especially considering the cutbacks in DNR coverage. It seems clear that the costs of the current penelties don't outweigh the benefits to the outlaws. How will oysters ever recover if they are harvested from reserves?!?

Maryland Department of Natural Resources - Maryland Natural Resources Police Blotter (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/dnrnews/pressrelease2009/113009.asp)


Somerset County – On November 24, 2009, the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) charged Russell James Swift, 38, of Crisfield, Md. with harvesting oysters with in an oyster sanctuary. Swift was observed by NRP Officers harvesting oysters within the Oyster Sanctuary located in Tangier Sound near the Big Annemessex River. Oyster Sanctuaries are protected areas for the propagation of oysters and do not allow the harvesting of oysters within the marked boundaries.

[heimdall]

I guess these don't count, because they are not poachers on the water. Poachers are everywhere.

Carroll County – On November 22, 2009, the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) charged John Scott Wood, 46, of Manchester, Md. with jacklighting. NRP Officers observed Wood shine a spotlight from a vehicle on Eckard Rd. in Westminster, Md. Officers seized a 12 gauge shotgun, slugs and spotlight. Wood was charged with casting artificial rays of light from a vehicle, with an implement capable of killing a deer in possession.

Anne Arundel County – On November 22, 2009, the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) charged Thomas Ethan Allen, 40, of Hanover, Md and Timothy Sean Harmon, 30, Halethorpe, Md with poaching violations. NRP officers responded to a complaint of illegal hunting on Ridge Rd. in Hanover at 9:20 pm., on November 22. The officers located Allen and Harmon in the woods on an ATV with a freshly killed 8 point buck. An investigation revealed that Allen and Harmon used a spotlight and a 12 gauge shotgun to shoot the deer. Both individuals were charged with casting the rays of artificial light with a implement capable of killing a deer in possession, possession of deer during closed season, hunting deer on Sunday, and hunt/pursue wildlife with an off-road vehicle. The shotgun, spotlight, flashlight, knife and deer were confiscated.

Allegany County – On November 25, 2009 at 10:30 pm., the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) charged Travis Keith Heavner, 28, of Flintstone, Md., with jacklighting. NRP Officers observed Heavner shine a hand held spotlight from a vehicle on Town Creek Road in Flintstone. Officers recovered a .17 caliber bolt action rifle, 4 rounds of ammunition, a folding hunting knife and a hand held spotlight from Heavner’s vehicle. Heavner was charged with casting artificial rays of light from a vehicle, with an implement capable of killing a deer in possession.

[C-Hawk18]

Travis Keith Heavner, 28, of Flintstone, Md., with jacklighting.

This guy's a repeat offender no less....but some on this board want to "sensationalize" the commercial violators

[PlaynHooky]

Maybe they should start confiscating vehicles and boats too.......THEN some people commercial OR not will get the message!!! This is truely sad!!!

[Tom Powers]

I don't know about MD but in VA you can lose your truck and guns for jack lighting deer. I doubt that the oyster guy risked losing his boat. . .

[SteveL]

I respect the fact that others may disagree with me, we may need to agree to disagree, but to compare deer poaching, with the deer population at historic highs across MD east of Allegany Co, with commercial oyster poaching, is not a good analogy.

Oyster populations are ravaged by disease, habitat is very limited due to water quality and sedimentation, and they are a "keystone species" which is an ecological term for a species that is a vital component of healthy terrestrial or aquatic system and that many other species rely on. Oyster reef provides three dimensional habitat and are relied on by numerous other species. Oysters are barely holding on, they are at 1-2% of their historic population and even a relatively low level of poaching may be limiting their populations in good habitat.

Unless and until there is a viable way to protect them in santuaries, other than putting them in creeks where shoreline property owners can watch out for outlaws, we are never going to recover them even in the limited high quality habitat.

I support sustainable commercial fishing and hard working law abiding commercial fishermen--comm harvest is the only way the non-fishing public is able to access high quality seafood from our nation's marine and coastal waters. I don't bash commercial fishermen, I respect them. I find oyster poaching in a sanctuary area highly offensive because as a public trust resource they belong to everyone and a few outlaws may be having a huge adverse impact on some oyster reefs. We need to protect healthy oysters so they can reproduce and hopefully produce disease resistant offspring. That is the fundamental issue with protecting oysters in sanctuaries and its being undermined by some unknown level of illegal activity by what is most likely a very small portion of the commercial oyster harvesters.

Someone posted this link in another thread, the "foggy day oysters" really caught my attention:
Can oysters save the bay? (http://www.somdnews.com/stories/11202009/indytop113227_32218.shtml)

Some text from the article:

...Poaching hampers efforts, hurts bay

Almost half of the state's licensed watermen were cited for a DNR violation last year, including crabbing, fishing and oyster infractions, said Mike Naylor, DNR assistant director of fishery services. The latter included undersized oysters, harvesting in off hours and poaching from sanctuaries. Penalties for fishing during restricted hours or taking more than the limit are so small that they do not act as efficient deterrents, Naylor said.

"Violations of our natural resources laws are higher than where they should be. This is a pervasive problem," he said.

While DNR is focused on increasing its patrolling efforts, budget cuts have led to a "greatly reduced" police force, Naylor said.

"We have fewer [officers] on the water now than we did a short time ago," he said. "There are fewer watermen. But the bay's the same size."

Legislation passed this year increases the penalties for certain violations and moves it to a point-based system, similar to traffic violations. One new law increases fines from a maximum of $500 to up to $1,000 for first offenses, and double that for subsequent offenses. Another allows DNR to suspend or revoke commercial fishing licenses.

"We don't encourage that. We're not going to tolerate that," Tommy Zinn, president of the Calvert County Watermen's Association, said of poaching oysters.

"There're some bad apples in every batch," he said.

While a waterman may pick up one violation for undersized oysters, Zinn said, he is most concerned about repeat offenders. He estimated that less than 10 percent of Maryland's watermen have multiple oyster-harvesting infractions.
"The watermen are very reluctant to turn anybody in. They're a tight-knit group," Zinn said. "They'd rather DNR do their job and catch them themselves."

Zinn said he is afraid of vigilante justice on the water as more watermen begin leasing bars. "It's just a matter of time until there's going to be some conflict," where a waterman catches another illegally harvesting oysters on a leased bar.

As for the calls from groups like the Coastal Conservation Association to stop funding oyster plantings that can be harvested, Zinn said it is working or cultivating the oyster bars that keeps the bars healthy.

"The CCA is all about themselves. They're not concerned about the oyster industry," Zinn said.

One managed reserve bar had about 4,000 bushels harvested legally, but was later poached heavily when a waterman took somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 bushels illegally.

"It's just a few bad guys ruining it for everybody," Abel said.

Had those oysters been kept on the bar, it could have repopulated itself over time and could have sustained a long-term market, Abel said.

And when large amounts of oysters are taken off either reserves or sanctuaries illegally, it makes it hard to prove that the bar is thriving.

"The restoration work could have been more successful than we realized," Naylor said.

"They can do a lot of damage in a very short time," Naylor said, especially at night or during the day in bad weather, when they bring in "foggy-day oysters." The watermen do often know who is harvesting illegally, but are reluctant to give up that information, he believes.

[Matt]

I respect the fact that others may disagree with me, we may need to agree to disagree, but to compare deer poaching, with the deer population at historic highs across MD east of Allegany Co, with commercial oyster poaching, is not a good analogy.



I could not agree with you more. We need to shoot more deer. Deer are out of control. Oysters on the other hand are almost gone. I'm ashamed at some of the responses on this thread.

[rhahn427]

I guess these don't count, because they are not poachers on the water. Poachers are everywhere.

Carroll County – On November 22, 2009, the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) charged John Scott Wood, 46, of Manchester, Md. with jacklighting. NRP Officers observed Wood shine a spotlight from a vehicle on Eckard Rd. in Westminster, Md. Officers seized a 12 gauge shotgun, slugs and spotlight. Wood was charged with casting artificial rays of light from a vehicle, with an implement capable of killing a deer in possession.

Anne Arundel County – On November 22, 2009, the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) charged Thomas Ethan Allen, 40, of Hanover, Md and Timothy Sean Harmon, 30, Halethorpe, Md with poaching violations. NRP officers responded to a complaint of illegal hunting on Ridge Rd. in Hanover at 9:20 pm., on November 22. The officers located Allen and Harmon in the woods on an ATV with a freshly killed 8 point buck. An investigation revealed that Allen and Harmon used a spotlight and a 12 gauge shotgun to shoot the deer. Both individuals were charged with casting the rays of artificial light with a implement capable of killing a deer in possession, possession of deer during closed season, hunting deer on Sunday, and hunt/pursue wildlife with an off-road vehicle. The shotgun, spotlight, flashlight, knife and deer were confiscated.

Allegany County – On November 25, 2009 at 10:30 pm., the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) charged Travis Keith Heavner, 28, of Flintstone, Md., with jacklighting. NRP Officers observed Heavner shine a hand held spotlight from a vehicle on Town Creek Road in Flintstone. Officers recovered a .17 caliber bolt action rifle, 4 rounds of ammunition, a folding hunting knife and a hand held spotlight from Heavner’s vehicle. Heavner was charged with casting artificial rays of light from a vehicle, with an implement capable of killing a deer in possession.

:jackthread::jackthread::jackthread::jackthread::j ackthread::jackthread::jackthread::jackthread:

You're so right to change the subject ....... after all ..... those poor oystermen were just trying to feed their family .......... after all ........ taking oysters from a santuary in the oyster depleted bay is nothing to taking a deer from a grossly overpopulated deer herd ......... thanks for putting the focus where it should be ........ on the place where the least harm was done ........ :rolleyes:

That said ........ I hope they throw the book at the deer poachers too ........

[C-Hawk18]

I could not agree with you more. We need to shoot more deer. Deer are out of control. Oysters on the other hand are almost gone. I'm ashamed at some of the responses on this thread.

Yeah - "Need to do it" - so even though it's "AGAINST THE LAW", somehow it's right?

Get real

SteveL - I don't think he was "comparing" the Oysters to Deer....he was pointing out the fact the all of those listed in the link were "poaching" but the OP only copied a certain part for his post.

[paxfish]

Neither Steve nor Matt said what they did was right. The deer poachers are being punished. I think all on this thread would agree that's a good thing. In fact, why didn't they confiscate the ATV too?

With regard to the oyster poacher, I concur with Steve. The damage that a comm can do in one night is staggering.

[27 sailfish]

A poacher is a poacher. Does not matter if they are STEALING finfish, game , fowl or shellfish.

The deer poachers were in an area very close to me. I know of two bow hunters who most likely saw the deer the poachers killed. These bow hunters were playing by the book but got robbed by the poachers.
Great DNR caught them and the local papers have published their names.

Same with the oyster poacher - put his name out there.

Now , let's hope these poachers get a stiff fine.

[night nurse]

A lot of the time if you have your car/truck with you while poching you risk loseing it. Now the catch, during the arrest the officer will ask "do you still owe on your car/truck", now if you say YES you do owe a bank note the officer won't take your truck but if you have paied it off then it's the DNR's. It's a BIG hassle to clear the title of the truck and DNR get in to a mess with the lender who has a lean on the title.

TED

[BILL H]

I agree that a poacher is a poacher. However, the impact of poaching on oysters is far more threatening to both the population of oysters and the quality of the Bay that any impacts of deer poaching. Especially oyster poaching on a commercial scale. After all, this set of boards is primarily concerned with fishing and related bay resources, so it is only normal that poaching of bay resources would get more notice and comment.

However, this board will continue to have the hard-core group of apologists who will use the time-tested smoke and mirrors to attemt to deflect any criticism (whether it is deserved or not) of commercial interests. They have trained at the Agent Pinks school of public relations, and continue to practice their tradecraft.

[SteveL]

To clarify my original posting of this topic on the Conservation and Policy Board:

Oysters are somewhat unique in that they are both a harvestable species AND they provide vitally important fish habitat AND they provide an important ecological service by filtering water and removing sediment.

Commercial oyster poaching in a reserve area is a very real threat to oyster conservation and management efforts. In addition to adverse impacts to the public oyster resource (by illegal removal for commercial purposes) it undermines Ches Bay water quality improvements that oysters provide and it is removing vital fish habitat. It is clearly a major threat to oyster conservation and to efforts to improve water quality and improve fish habitat. For those reasons it belongs on the C&P board.

Deer poaching is an important law enforcement and human safety issue, but unless it involves widespread commercial-scale activities it does not rise to the level of a conservation and policy issue in my opinion.

Its time to start playing hardball with commercial oyster poaching in oyster sanctuaries rather than treating it as a relatively minor issue. The outlaws are considering the costs and benefits of poaching in reserves, and so far the benefits of poaching outweigh the costs. That needs to change.