It's a real shame that the one or two bad apples keep coming out from the Maryland Watermen population with harassing things. This morning I received a text from a number that I did not recognize that said, " I see you guys got hammered in your hearing on Senate bill 1032. Oh well!!!" . I responded that I was not sure who this was but that the bill got a favorable vote by all committee members.
My gut told me this sounded like a harassing text so I looked up the number and the number came back belonging to a Robert Hodge Newberry of Crumpton, MD. Upon a simple search it came back that he is a commercial watermen and has a long list of Natural Resources Violations ranging from:
1) possession of unculled oysters/undersized oysters (he was guilty)
2) to possession of striped bass over 36 inches (guilty)
3) to fishing with out TFL license in possession (could not tell what verdict was)
4) participating in fishery with out a license (guilty, got pbj)
5) striped bass with out allocation (pleaded not guilty, got guilty verdict)
6) possession of undersized striped bass (pleaded not guilty, got guilty verdict)
7) yet another possession of undersized striped bass (pleaded not guilty, got guilty verdict)
He has other charges as well but I think you get the point. When I told him that I was going to report his text to the police as harassment he went on to tell me he was only texting me to to give me the current information on the bill....really?! Then he got religious and said he was sorry he bothered me, "god bless and tight lines".
I know some honest watermen who are good people, but I have to say with the recent antics by the "one or two bad" apples I am beginning to feel like there is another side to all this. Maybe the good watermen are in the minority and the bad ones really the majority? They try to bully and harasses you and then when you call them on it they give the "I did not mean anything, God Bless" line. I think the public is beginning to see through the BS. I feel bad for the good ones because it's the "one or two, three, four, five, ten, twenty" that are really painting a bad picture of their group.
Brandon
My gut told me this sounded like a harassing text so I looked up the number and the number came back belonging to a Robert Hodge Newberry of Crumpton, MD. Upon a simple search it came back that he is a commercial watermen and has a long list of Natural Resources Violations ranging from:
1) possession of unculled oysters/undersized oysters (he was guilty)
2) to possession of striped bass over 36 inches (guilty)
3) to fishing with out TFL license in possession (could not tell what verdict was)
4) participating in fishery with out a license (guilty, got pbj)
5) striped bass with out allocation (pleaded not guilty, got guilty verdict)
6) possession of undersized striped bass (pleaded not guilty, got guilty verdict)
7) yet another possession of undersized striped bass (pleaded not guilty, got guilty verdict)
He has other charges as well but I think you get the point. When I told him that I was going to report his text to the police as harassment he went on to tell me he was only texting me to to give me the current information on the bill....really?! Then he got religious and said he was sorry he bothered me, "god bless and tight lines".
I know some honest watermen who are good people, but I have to say with the recent antics by the "one or two bad" apples I am beginning to feel like there is another side to all this. Maybe the good watermen are in the minority and the bad ones really the majority? They try to bully and harasses you and then when you call them on it they give the "I did not mean anything, God Bless" line. I think the public is beginning to see through the BS. I feel bad for the good ones because it's the "one or two, three, four, five, ten, twenty" that are really painting a bad picture of their group.
Brandon