State fisheries officials outlined a sweeping plan Wednesday night to curb commercial striped bass poaching in the Chesapeake Bay, just four months after miles of illegal nets filled with 13 tons of fish were discovered by police in the waters off Kent Island.
The proposal by the Department of Natural Resources, which combines a series of new monitoring and enforcement measures, is on a fast track to implementation before the start of the gill net season on Dec. 1.
The discovery of the illegally netted fish throughout February set off a firestorm of protest from recreational groups and conservationists, prompted creation of a $30,000 reward and generated an online petition drive to ban all nets in the bay that collected thousands of signatures from across the country. The incident forced DNR to close the commercial striped bass season for two weeks while officials scrambled to assess the scope of the poaching.
1 comment:
New policy on poaching?
How about don't poach and enforce the law. Kiss , keep it simple stupid.
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