As reported on the Massachusetts Environmental Police Facebook page: While investigating marine fisheries violations in the Cape Ann area, Massachusetts Environmental Police Officers observed 5 individuals fishing from the rocks. Within minutes, Officers witnessed multiple violations as the individuals landed several undersized striped bass without measuring them or returning them to the ocean. Massachusetts Environmental Police Officers and Gloucester Police made contact and discovered 39 undersized striped bass ranging from 12-25 inches. All 5 individuals were issued criminal summonses for possession of undersized striped bass, striped bass over the limit, and fishing without valid saltwater licenses. All fishing gear was seized and the striped bass were donated to the Open Door, Gloucester Food Pantry.
Anglers are reminded current Massachusetts regulations only allow for 1 striped bass per person per day and the minimum legal limit is 28 inches.
MEP would like to thank Gloucester Police for their assistance, as well as Gortons Fish and Steve Connolly Seafood for donating ice and fishing totes to ensure the catch was not wasted and made it to families in the Gloucester area.
MEP has been busy this spring with a number of poaching incidents.
Should have taken their cars TOO!!!!
Start throwing them in jail!
Time to name and shame. Bring on stiffer penalties!
I agree 100%. Make sure fishermen know who they are.
We don’t need stricter punishments. Being arrested, fined, losing your license and facing jail time is enough of a deterrent. Poachers aren’t the reason you’re not catching fish, the reason is because there’s giant trawlers nuking the sea floor wherever they think there might be stripers. Ask yourself, how are these massive killing machines that haul in thousands of fish per hour going to make sure they only catch 28″+? Removing a single boat for the season has the equivalent effect of increasing the bag limit to 3. We pay environmental enforcement officers $50k a year to make headlines for seizing 39 fish, but slip the same officer $5k and you can take in an extra 3,900 lbs of fish (they’re not all corrupt, but it only takes one). You get the point.
John,
A good point, but seriously, dude, murder is murder. If one group was caught with 39 illegal Stripers than how many groups were NOT caught? There are quite a few people taking illegal fish along our vast coast which stretches thousands of habitat miles. To recoin your phrase to a point, “we all are not corrupt, but it only takes some.” One fish, 39 fish, a net full….they ALL add up, pal.
Nice job with a shout-out to our Environmental Police and to Gloucester’s finest!! Kudos to Gortons and Connelly Fish, too, for stepping up!
These trawlers are full of guys making a living to put food on the table
Please triple all fines-Impound vehicle and equipment
Coolers packed with ice is proof it’s not his first time doing this
thats the game wardens truck not the poachers
I totally agree with Jon Lemon, trawlers do more damage to the stripper population in a day than the scum bag poachers can do in an entire season. I would love to see there names and pictures posted in every bait & tackle, marina and publications like OTW.
John lemon. Just to let you know dragger,s very. Seldom ever catch any amount of stripper,s if you had some experience you whould no this me 25 year,s exp. 9. Out of10 angler,s that get caught with illegal bass. N blue,s are of a Mexican or a brazillion. Decent that,s all I ever read about in. Fisheries magazine,s
Name pictures of also..take car gear ect. Like there supposed to do..1 fish is still wrong but a fine and hear taken understandable this amount should be the whole kit and kabootle.as they say…good bust none the less??
Shame!
How can we allow this?
Is our society so
Totally bankrupt?
I wholly agree that there are bad actors out there – especially in the Canal on Cape Cod with Striped Bass. But how can we overlook the thousands of striped bass being taken from our ocean by commercial fisherman. When we can only take one greater then 28 inches as fishermen why then do these commercial trawlers get to take so many and size limits don’t matter – this is where our Fishery Dept needs to focus most.
I agree with John Lemon this is one of the most ridiculous fishing articles I have read this year I am a regular fisherman I fish all year round my experiences with observing commercial fishing is that they’re allowed to keep just about anything they desire to keep size and weight doesn’t matter I’m sure this affects the fishing environment nevertheless no one appears to pay any attention to these violations they are by far more damaging. I will agree that there should be stiffer penalties in regards to any violation just focus more on those commercial fishermen
So guys are all nuts .law infrorment against publication..people are people it does not matter who they work for money is money and a job makes money .under the table or not ..but I say this if you get caught for cheating .not pitching that’s a gay word .cheating is better ..like what your wife ,or husband does ..ban them for life no more fishing ..you get caught after your band .then you do a nickel in prison..trust me I know ..cause I am the the stripper king on the west coast
Imagine thinking you’re hard for going to jail for catching a fish, that’s not very kingly. in this post you not only admitted to poaching but also tax evasion and bribery? You’re either the dumbest person on the internet or the worlds worst criminal. I hear they offer high school equivalency exams in jail maybe next time you’re there you can take it. Although I don’t think you’ll pass the first time because you write at a low 1st grade level.
I WISH I MADE 50K A YEAR, THEN I COULD BUY A $ 600.00 DOLLAR SURF ROD AND A YETI COOLER AND BE A BIG SHOT TOO. P.S. THE COOLER WOULD HAVE TO HOLD AT LEAST 25 STRIPERS CUZ THE RESTURANTS DONT JUST BUY ONE.
buying a $600 surf rod and a $200 cooler isn’t really the best allocation of funds on $50k a year salary (I assume this is after tax). Instead you could put that money into a Index fund or a bond, you’ll make more money and you’ll have enough to buy yourself a nice keyboard when the cap locks isn’t always on.
SHOW ME WHERE I CAN MAKE MORE MONEY OF WHAT YOURE TALKING ABOUT. P.S. WHEN YOUR 82 YRS OLD YOU NEED THE BIGGEST LETTERS TO SEE WHAT YOURE WRITING ABOUT.
Agreed . Saw a trawler leaving port Saturday when we were heading out on a charter out of watch hill. All I could think was, we are bringing slingshots to the fight, meanwhile these guys have nuclear weapons…
I wanna know how are they catching them!! im having a tough time at plum island. ive only caught 2 – 22inchers in the past couple of weeks. using mackerel chunk and sometimes a lure or 2
DEAR MR. MODERATOR: SAME BASIC POST, CLARIFIED A BIT, AND LESS TYPOS HERE…IF POSSIBLE, USE THIS VERSION, NOT ONE I JUST SENT…THX, ZH
Anyone have any thoughts about reining in some of the pure idiocy in this discussion?
For one thing, trawlers are very, very, very seldom interested in catching striped bass. Granted, with no groundfish opportunity, and big wind stealing squid ground to save the planet(?) by pounding the seabed flat and pouring concrete footings, they dont have many options at this point….
Even so, draggers have an awful lot to lose by making a tow for bass, or keeping over a limit.
Commercial bass fishing with rod and reel is plenty efficient, but trying to lay blame for the problems with stripers on trawlers is absolutely asinine, and even allowing this sort of misdirected rage fester is irresponsible.
Consider the last three years of the Canal, or ten years at Block Island, and tell me again with a straight face this is a “trawler” problem.
The problem is that the sport community has become quite adept at excusing itself for the damage it does.
With release mortality rates about to go off the charts again with warm water, the guys who catch and release 15 or 20 big bass in a tide kill close to 50% of what they send back.
Black market is huge, but remember, most arent commercial fishermen–they’re sporties making money off a hobby.
The trouble we have as a fishing community is that we always manage to equivocate our way around what damage we each do to the striper population because it’s just a few fish, compared to the billions of imaginary bass trawlers must surely be catching (but arent).
What we need to embrace is that no one of us is the problem, but when you multiply out an entire coast worth of folks “just catching a few,” the numbers add up fast and huge.
In short, none of the well-known scapegoats are helping the striper population, but neither are any of us. The stock has continued to dwindle and we’re still removing big breeders at an alarming rate.
It’s getting bad now because recruitment of juveniles into the migratory striper population fell apart for a bunch of years a decade ago.
The fish that weren’t born aren’t replenishing what we’ve continued to remove on a coastwide seasonal basis.
That means less fish total now, but also less recruitment when those fish would have reached spawning age.
There are holes in the age composition of the stock. We’re absolutely whaling on a big year class of 2011. When we wipe those fish out, there will be some even leaner years coming.
We all need to take responsibility at this point. It’s gonna get worse. Best we can do is stop finger-pointing and take a hard look in the mirror. It ain’t pretty.
OK, ILL TELL YOU THEIR SECRET HOW THEY CATCH ALL THESE STRIPERS, BUT DONT TELL ANYONE ! THEY USE THE BANJO MINNOW.
I live 2 hours away from coast and should be able to keep more than 1 striper. Absolutely ridiculous law