Round 2

[hammer4reel]

DEC: Anglers violate fish rules onMontauk partyboatFor the second time in less than a month, state marine enforcement agentshave charged anglers on a Montauk partyboat with violations for undersizedand over-the-limit fish, including more than 1,800 found in unclaimedcoolers, authorities said.The most recent action took place Saturday, when Department ofEnvironmental Conservation officers on patrol in Montauk Harbor boardedthe Viking Starship partyboat after it returned from sea.Recommended for youOfficers inspected each of the 124 fishermen aboard as they offloaded andfound 23 to be in violation, with 26 tickets issued for undersized and over-the-limit Black Sea bass and over-the-limit porgies, said DEC spokesmanBenning DeLaMater. Anglers can possess eight black sea bass 15 inches orlarger and 45 porgies 10 inches or larger under current rules.The boat’s captain, who was not identified, also was cited for an unsecuredsanitation device, DeLaMater said.A further inspection of the boat found the 1,800 additional fish in coolers andbuckets that anglers didn’t claim, DeLaMater said. All the confiscated fishwere donated to charities, he said

Paul Forsberg, operator of the Viking Fleet, denied 1,800 fish were discoveredon the boat.“Those numbers are wrong,” he said. “That is false information.”He said the Viking Fleet goes out of its way to alert anglers aboard its boats ofthe rules, including on fare tickets, at the dock and on placards all over theboats. Crew members alert anglers to undersized fish and won’t clean them,he said.Captains announce regulations each time a boat moves to a new fishing spot.Viking has less than 10 percent noncompliance with fishing rules, Forsbergsaid. The DEC “got it wrong,” Forsberg said.DeLaMater, noting that seven state and one federal officer were at the scene,said there was no mistake. He provided a photo of the coolers on the boat andread from a “significant incident report,” which goes to the DECcommissioner.“This is obviously something we don’t take lightly,” he said.Orla Reville, business manager for Viking, noted that there were 126 aboardand that many of them left without taking their fish because the DEC’sinvestigation on the boat took hours.
“You can’t say every one of those fish was illegal,” Reville said.Last month, DEC officers issued eight tickets and 22 warnings after theyspotted crew aboard another partyboat, the Fin Chaser, throwing “hundredsof pounds” of illegal fish overboard in Montauk Harbor, Newsday reported.The boat was later found to have hundreds more undersized and over-the-limit fish — a combined 1,000 illegal fish in all, authorities said. Fin Chasercaptain Keith Williams, who was issued a violation for an incomplete vesseltrip report, declined to comment.Under current law, partyboat captains are not held responsible for thefishermen and women on their boats “unless DEC officers witness staff takingresponsibility for the catch, assisting with the catch.”


pictures here


http://www.newsday.com/long-island/s...bor-1.14182469


and just imagine their season is still open, while ours is closed





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[reason162]

The Viking Fleet are the big boys, not like the clowns caught last week dumping fish. DEC should just post officers on the boat or at the docks...1800 unclaimed fish, over limit on porgies when it's 45 per angler...and people think anglers can police themselves??

[reely]

greed

intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.

[TerriMc223]

Such a waste. I hope the fish donated to charities were edible. Soup kitchens still have to follow basic sanitation and food handling guidelines and if these fish were not iced down they may not be able to use them.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Wow, no wonder some have an opinion of the fishing community as kill everything Neanderthals... It's incidents like this that fuel that line of thinking....

I've seen a huge change in fishermen's attitudes over the years. There are many more people who are much more conservation minded then there were years ago. I'm not saying things like this don't happen any longer but they don't happen as often as they used to...

Not sure about the circles you all travel in but I've noticed a lot more people practicing catch and release. Not that they don't keep some fish for the table, most of us do, but we do it within the law and don't take more then we can use. I've also seen more people go out of their way to make sure and handle fish properly so they can be released and others spend hours trying to revive legal fish they caught and wanted to release.

Recreational Captains, crew and fishermen have defiantly changed over the years and have a much greater respect for the fisheries and conservation then they used to... I know I do and I've witnessed it in a lot of others, many who are here on this site.

Having said all this, I have no issues with people keeping as many fish as they want to within the law. Catch and release is a personal choice each one of us has a right to make and for our own reasons... If however you are denied access to a fishery because of it being closed, that choice has been taken away from you.

[shrimpman steve]

Well said Gerry. Did mom help you with that

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by shrimpman steve

Well said Gerry. Did mom help you with that

Too funny Shrimpy.... Mom always checked my homework, now my wife does.

[TAB95]

Unfortunately, I'm not surprised.

[Down Deep Sportfishing]

Simple solution, a few years back NJ had a stand alone state quota. We were then lumped into a "region" along with NY and other states. It seems there are plenty of fish that other states are enjoying while we are closed here in NJ. Do we wait for the regulators to say after 20 years that " this didn't work"? So give us back what was taken from us and allow us to use our quotas for our state. After all, where is Uncle Chuckie now, and who wants to be associated with bad apples.

[Detour66]

This is truly a shame. There must be big money involved for them to take this risk. I don't think they are keeping them for themselves to eat. So I guess if you catch all the fish you want and get caught you just leave the cooler there and walk away without any or a small penalty. This could give the recreational fishing community a worst reputation to some in the general public than it already does now. Not good!