Sunday, November 8, 2009

Leave the bass alone!

From the NY Times:

Two men were arrested this week in Brooklyn, hauling almost 300 pounds of illegally caught striped bass up to their truck, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Enforcement officers observed the men fishing off Breezy Point, the westernmost edge of the Rockaways, and followed them back to a dock in Shell Bank Creek in the Gerritsen Beach neighborhood, the D.E.C. said. The poachers had 46 fish, 44 more than the legal recreational limit. Forty of the fish were “shorts” — smaller than the legal recreational size requirement of 28 inches.

And from the DEC press release:

Their arraignment is scheduled for early December. They are facing thousands of dollars in fines and a possible four years in prison. The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case. The fish were seized and destroyed because Striped Bass are not permitted to be harvested for commercial sale from waters west of East Rockaway Inlet due to the potential level of contaminants in the fish.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sooo glad they were arrested and are being prosecuted.
An article in last months "Mother Jones" magazine a scientist stated that in approx 10 years - "fish will be off the menu", as the oceans are being depleted by overfishing.

Mayor Basstard said...

Nothing fishy going on here!

Anonymous said...

Good! "Give them the MAX!!!!

Anonymous said...

Ted Kennedy say: You steal them bass, I kick your ass....

Anonymous said...

I don't see why the fish needed to be "destroyed". Why not just throw them back if they were still alive?

Anonymous said...

They either weren't alive or they were out of the water for so long that they were brain damaged from the lack of oxygen and not returnable.

D. Worm said...

Were they working for scale?

georgetheatheist said...

You know, I've got a fish just like him hanging on a plaque on my wall. Except mine shakes his tail and even sings. Can you believe it?