...A Western Shore senator introduced Senate Bill 159 to the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee in Annapolis. The bill is calling for poachers to lose their fishing license if they are caught harvesting oysters in an area that is off limits or designated as a sanctuary.Indeed, as of now, watermen often see the small fines levied for violations as a cost of doing business. As a friend commented on a fishing board the other day, commercial fishermen get tickets for illegal fishing the way that some of us (cough) get speeding tickets. When catching large numbers of fish, having a small one sneak in possible, and I believe the law already makes some allowance for that. But a blatant violation like oystering in a well marked sanctuary (at night...) is clearly not an oversight or a mistake, it is a deliberate attempt to bypass the rules set to help the species maintain itself, and the penalty should be extreme.
"It's a bill that simply says oysters are too important and they need to stay in place," said Kim Coble of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Right now many poachers are fined when they are caught. Officials say the fines do not serve as a deterrent since many look at the fines as the price they have to pay in order to do business...
I fully expect Eastern Shore Legislators to kill the bill....
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