NRP Charges Two Crisfield Watermen with Oyster Sanctuary Violations

Two Crisfield watermen were charged Monday by the Maryland Natural Resources Police with illegally harvesting oysters from protected waters.

Using the Maritime Law Enforcement Information Network system of cameras and radar, two officers monitored Paul Franklin Tyler III, 29, and Jeffrey Alan Cuff Jr., 31, at 10 a.m. as they dredged for wild oysters in the buffer zone surrounding the Somerset Oyster Sanctuary near Tangier Sound.

Once Tyler, the vessel operator, saw the NRP officers, he quickly left the sanctuary buffer with the dredge still in the water. The officers stopped the vessel and saw 14 bushels of oysters on board.

The officers checked all four corner buoys marking the sanctuary boundaries to ensure that they were on station as defined in state regulation. The 14 bushels of oysters were returned to the waters of the state.

The two watermen are scheduled to appear in Somerset District Court on March 10. If found guilty, Tyler and Cuff each could be fined as much as $3,000 and have their tidal fish licenses suspended for six months up to a year.