Illegal Fishing Hooks Hundreds of Citations

[bigtex]

GREEN RIVER, Wash. -- Illegal fishing has Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers so busy writing citations, they're struggling with other enforcement efforts. They wrote 22 citations on Labor Day at one spot of a closed section on the Green River.

"How are you doing? Catching any?" Sgt. Kim Chandler asked anglers Wednesday.

The Sous Creek hatchery is upstream and salmon are working their way to it. Wild fish also need time to swim to their spawning ground, some protected under the Endangered Species Act. To give fish a chance to make it, the fishing season opens in sections on the Green River. The section between 277th and Auburn Black Diamond Road doesn't open til September 16.

"In case you haven't figured it out, this is the problem. It's closed. You can't fish here," Sgt. Chandler said.

It's a lesson dozens of fishermen have had to learn the hard way.

"Today we figured we'll go some place close to home. That's what happened," Jim Satco said.

Satco explained to Sgt. Chandler that he didn't know he'd picked a spot that doesn't open to fishing until next week. He caught a couple pinks on a year where millions are swarming rivers.

"It's just too much for some folks," Sgt. Chandler said. "They can't stand it. That's why we call it pink fever."

This year, the drought's changed fish habitat and the rules for catching them. Most fishermen have complained they got confused about the rules.

"The way they describe everything is goofy. You've got to be a lawyer to understand half that stuff," Satco said.

http://www.krem.com/story/news/local/northwest/2015/09/10/illegal-fishing-hooks-hundreds-of-citations/72041880/

[bigtex]

"The way they describe everything is goofy. You've got to be a lawyer to understand half that stuff," Satco said.

Apparently this guy can't read a map. Pretty simple to understand that upstream of 277th bridge is closed....

[JimmyHoffa]

"The way they describe everything is goofy. You've got to be a lawyer to understand half that stuff," Satco said.

Apparently this guy can't read a map. Pretty simple to understand that upstream of 277th bridge is closed....

Or referring to the fishing regs as a whole?  Probably not too far from the mark.

[Jonathan_S]

If I was confused on the rules...I wouldn't go fishing.  Bunch of nimrods.

[XAFSSGT]

If I was confused on the rules...I wouldn't go fishing.  Bunch of nimrods.

 

Right? I'm going to err on the side of caution, myself as well.

[Bob33]

I don't fish, but it doesn't seem difficult for me to determine when that area opens.

[M_ray]

Not really a story IMO my house is just upstream a click from there, this regulation has been in the book every year regardless of drought or not ... happens every year! 

[Gringo31]

I'm glad to see they are out enforcing 

[bigtex]

If you watch the story you hear Sgt. Chandler telling the fishermen that he cited them for "without fish" even though they had fish. This all comes down to a rule the WA Supreme Court instituted in 2012. Prior to 2012 nearly all fish and wildlife misdemeanors could be handled by a ticket with a fine. The court said effective 2012 that all crimes (including natural resource offenses) required a mandatory court date. So WDFW approached the legislature and the legislature decriminalized 15 fish and wildlife offenses which made them civil infraction which are handled like a speeding ticket.

What WDFW did was have the legislature separate two types of fishing and bird hunting offenses. What we have now is if you are fishing/bird hunting and violating regs (and are licensed) but don't have birds/fish in possession you can get a civil infraction. If you have birds/fish then you face the criminal charge and a mandatory court date.

The problem is that courts are still overloaded even though WDFW decriminalized 15 fish and wildlife offenses that many counties no longer take the everyday fishing offenses which are crimes because someone violated a rule and has fish in their possession. So the guys in the story actually got cited for the offense of fishing closed waters while not in possession of fish, when in reality they should have been charged with a misdemeanor offense.

In my opinion, more offenses (not just fish and wildlife) need to be decriminalized so we can start enforcing the laws the way they were meant to be enforced.

[Bean Counter]

  Don't know what to say. I might buy a tag if its G&F kindly opens up a vendor at the trail head and I might fish in an open river if I know it.  I've recently learned on H-W that following the rules seems optional if its inconvenient because hey, some people have jobs and 74 year old uncles unlike the chumps who do things the right way. 

[M_ray]

 

[Squidward]

if there are hundreds of tickets written there, maybe just maybe the state needs to mark the river a little clearer.

[Bean Counter]

 

[JimmyHoffa]

if there are hundreds of tickets written there, maybe just maybe the state needs to mark the river a little clearer.

or the opposite.  "Hmmmm....if we muddy up the regs a bit more, we can write thousands of tickets there" 

[PolarBear]

"Pink fever"?