Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Boating Accident Kills One, Injures Two

One man was fatally injured, and two men critically injured when the boat they were going fishing in collided with a "buoy like object" off Aberdeen Proving Grounds (APG) in the Gunpowder River in the Northern Chesapeake Bay.  A brief media report is located here, with the following video:


Far more details of the accident have been reported in the "social media". The boat was reported as belonging to Capt. Danny Beck, one of the survivors of the incident. Danny Beck is a commercial waterman, and onetime president of the Baltimore County Watermen's Association. They were reported to have been going catfishing, which would be legal outside of APG. However, in 2005 Danny Beck was arrested and convicted of poaching yellow perch within APG waters, a Federal crime, and was sentenced to a year of probation.  In 2000, he was convicted of illegally catching $70,000 worth of striped bass off APG, and was sentenced to a year in prison.  From the Baltimore Sun:
Charles "Sonny" Norris, Daniel F. Beck and Harry Foote III were arrested March 1, 2005, by officers of the Army installation's Marine, Wildlife and Environmental Law Enforcement Division, who pulled up about 85 nets filled with more than 22,000 pounds of yellow perch, a fish protected under Maryland law.

State law prohibits commercial yellow perch fishing in February, the fish's spawning month.

Federal officers said that after warning the men for several years, they watched them set their nets in early February.

When the men boarded the boat March 1, the officers confiscated 2,500 pounds of fish and released 20,000 pounds, a catch valued at $39,000.

The three watermen - who work out of Middle River - each pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to a single misdemeanor, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Beck, 57, who led the Baltimore County Watermen's Association for 20 years, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis to a year of probation, was fined $5,000 and was ordered to forfeit three nets.

Norris, 40, the current president, received a year of probation, was fined $1,500 and forfeited one net.

Foote, 47, received one year's probation, was fined $1,500 and forfeited three nets.

In 2000, Beck pleaded guilty to federal charges of catching as much as $70,000 worth of striped bass off of APG using state fishing licenses issued to his wife and daughter, then falsifying his catch information at his state-licensed check station.

Garbis sentenced him then to one year and one day in federal prison, fined him $5,000 and ordered the forfeiture of his fishing license, boat and nets.
While the presumption of innocence should be preserved, nonetheless it will be interesting to see what the Army investigators determine.

12 comments:

  1. Whomever wrote this article needs to get there ass beet intot he ground. One man dies and 2 are critically injured and you have the nerve to start saying they were breaking the law because of what they did 6 years ago. how about a lil more infor on the condition of the men and their families during this tragedy and a little less worries about the studpid fish. Oh I forgot sorry, you liberals value the envirnment more than human life... You ought to be ashamed. Danny was heading home which took him right through APG and hit a nav aid. It doesnt mean he was catching ilegal fish there just because he happend to be driving through. Next time why dont you write an article based on the facts and what people want to hear, not your liberal twisted view of what is more important in this tragedy.

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  2. Fritz a liberal? Bwahahahahaha!

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  3. we learn something new every day, Fritz is now a Libtard. Bwahahahahaha!

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  4. I wonder just how many times Daniel Beck has been written up....I wonder, look it up.

    Oh and if his boat had been confiscated one of those times maybe the one killed would be alive.

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  5. What about the family that lost a young one?
    What idiot would tow a boat with THREE injured men on board to Mddle River instead of towing it
    to Gunpowder State Park or Oliver Beach for professional help or a helicopter ride.

    P.S.~~ Also, if the watermen who have gotten into
    trouble years ago would have been honest and
    abided by the rules, they would not have been in
    trouble.

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  6. It's sad for the dead and injuerd for sure, but something smells fishy here. Catfishing....uh huh, right!

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  7. There was a time when you could fish the Gunpowder and come home with a boat load of fish.
    I am talking the "recreational" fisherman. There won't be any fish left if the netters
    keep cleaning it out. Also, we heard Beck wasn't even supposed to be in the river that day.

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  8. Anonymous #1

    I presume that rather than intending a personal threat. you are expressing an wish. You do realize, of course, that unless you are using a computer at a library or somewhere similar, your ISP could be forced to reveal your identity in the case of a real threat of violence.

    I apologize if I seem uncaring about the plight of Danny Beck, his friends and their families. That was not my intention. I do feel sorry for all those hurt or killed by his accident. Accidents do happen to people, and virtue does not render one immune, nor does iniquity necessarily cause them.

    However, if a twice convicted bank robber were to have been found to have fallen and hurt himself in a bank at night, one could reasonably have suspicions of his motives for being there. While I would like to believe in the ability and willingness of people to reform after being caught and convicted of crimes, the rate of recidivism among criminals in general and watermen convicted of violations of the game laws in particular is extremely high, and I won't apologize for noting his prior activities at a time when poaching fish is in the news.

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  9. Has anyone heard the condition of the two men that was hurt? Beside Danny Beck who were the two other men?

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  10. I know this is way late, but an article in the Essex-Middle River Patch from April 1, gives some more information:

    http://essex.patch.com/articles/well-known-essex-waterman-continues-to-recover-following-serious-boating-accident

    Apparently, Danny is still in the hospital but is expected to recover:

    "Joyce Beck said her husband has been deeply depressed since the accident. He has been back and forth between the hospital and a rehabilitation center. He has also recently dealt with fluid filling up in his lungs.

    “He is likely going to walk with a limp and be in pain for a very long time,” Beck said. “But the pain he is dealing with knowing what happened to the other two men on the boat with him hurts a lot more.”

    I wish him well in his recovery.

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  11. the man that passed was a great man by the name of Richard R Quaty.The only goal this man had in life was to work his ass off and do whatever he had to do to make sure he could support his family i know this cause that great man was my father.The other man that was hut his name was jimmy and it is said that he will never walk again.And as far as i know danny is still in the hospital.

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  12. Thank you for the update. Sorry to hear that it was your father who was killed. Regardless of anything Danny did in the past, he, your father and Jimmy did not deserve what happened.

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