Natural Resources Police charge Somerset Man with Undersize Crabs

[RussellBurgess]

If I was a judge it would be 30 days in jail.  There is no excuse for that.  He hurts all of us and the enviroment as a whole.  That is un excusable.

[Island King]

You guys were all talking about throwing a guy in prison just for catching a few hundred undersize crabs right. Seems a bit harsh to fine him a couple hundred thousand dollars or sentence him to a long time in the bighouse for that sort of crime. But what the heck right, he's a [dang] comm as some of you like to say. Those jerks are allways getting in the way with their 1000 pots or mile long trot lines. And its their fault too that the bay is in decline and a fella and his girl can't go out on a saturday afternoon and catch a bushel of ones in an hour.
Where I live there are twenty four sewege treatment plants upstream of my house and there isn't one of them that meets a reasonable level of treatment before it releases into the waterway. But if that isn't enough there are the farms upriver, which combined dump hundreds of tons of nitrates, insecticide, etc. into the water system each year, and then you have the thousands of acres of parking lots carrying engine coolant, oil, fuel, etc. into the watershed. But when it comes to blaming somebody, nobody takes a shot at thier toilet, yard fertilizer, or car, oh [Sam Hill] no, that would be on them, it so much easier to take a shot at the guy bustin his [arse] fourteen hours a day catching YOUR crabs. What an a-hole that guy is. And if he's not the problem you say, then where are the crabs. Well gather around and listen my little cherries and listen well, anybody who knows anything about crabs, oh you know, the small things such as their life habits and population cycles, knows very well that it really doesn't matter how many you catch or what size they are. You see when you have a female of a species that can lay a few million eggs at a time, that is the sort of animal that can take a pretty big hit population wise and come back fast. But that said, and this is the bad news, eventually they are going to get tired of swiming in this bucket of sewer water and then leave for good, and when that happens my dears, a one inch size limit isn't going to be small enough.

And by the way, the fella with the undersized crabs should be fined, he broke the law and without that to hold us on course we are nothing but a bunch of politicians.

[R D]

My friend we have yelled water quality and pollution for more years than I can remember, I have been told by Gov. officials"yes we know thats the main problem" but Commercial fishermen are by far the easiest to blame and control,thats why we have to police ourselfs,this guy had multiple violations over the years and way to many small crabs on this one,I have some like this around here,catch trash and sell it cheap and yell the loudest when there ain't no big crabs, he just happened to get caught this one time,what about all the 10s of thousands he didn't get caught with,it makes it tough to go to meetings and look people in the eye and try to tell them that we are good stewards of the fishery when we still have fishermen doing stuff like this.

[tattoo]

BRAVO R.D. 

[anchor]

if that man was caught for taking undersized crabs, multiple times mind you then [Sam Hill] yes he should go to jail. if i was to get caught stealing from  a store and got caught i know they would throw me in jail. just because it was crabs doesnt make a bit of difference, i have personal saw the feds. take a man to jail , take his boat and his vehicle all his fishing equipment for keeping rockfish from the susquhanna flats right off turkey point. he had 6 big cows in the cooler when he was caught. here to find out that he was being investigated for a month.

[Black Irish]

1st count - Guilty - Fines & CC suspended.
2nd count - Guilty - Fine $450, CC $22.50
3rd count - Nolle prosequi
4th count - Guilty - Fine $450, CC $22.50
5th count - Nolle prosequi

For those who don't know...nolle prosequi means the court has decided to go no further with the charge at this point. It can be reopened later for prosecution. So he got fined $945 total for the crabs...maybe he learned his lesson @ $1.50 per undersized crab...

[crabologist]

Oh yeah Greg , they hit him real hard ........................

[tattoo]

Maby he did learn a lesson, hope so, everyone derserves a second chance.

[Seaweed]

He's got 15 court cases pending against him in the last 11 years....

I have a feeling we'll see his name in the paper again.

[tattoo]

Thats , somthing i did not know. sounds like he already had a second chance and then some,  and blew it. some people never learn.

[Seaweed]

Thats true.  And he just paid $945 for his crime.

[tattoo]

That STINKS , where is the justice. they need to hit him real hard , not just a slap on the hand.

[Crabbyd]

The real question is:  How much did he make off selling undersized crabs before he got caught this time?  I'm sure he doesn't have such rotten luck that this was an isolated case.

[tattoo]

I guiess only he knows how much he made, But who in their right mind would buy 5 inch crabs.?

[crabologist]

I guiess only he knows how much he made, But who in their right mind would buy 5 inch crabs.?

You would be surprised how many people keep crabs that small .

[Crabbyd]

I guiess only he knows how much he made, But who in their right mind would buy 5 inch crabs.?

Tattoo

Go to Cowtown NJ on any given Saturday and you will see 2 or 3 vendors up there with crabs in coolers that are no bigger then 5" and they always have people buying from them.  I am sure this is not the only place to find small crabs.  I just use this as an example because I have seen it many many times over the years of visiting there.

If there wasn't a market for them, you wouldn't have those catching them.

[tattoo]

They are problay N.J crabs I think the size limit is smaller than M.D, I won't wast my time or money on crabs that small. Thats only my opinion. 

[Seaweed]

I guiess only he knows how much he made, But who in their right mind would buy 5 inch crabs.?

That was legal size in MD for a long time, and they only recently changed the rule to 5-1/4 in July.  Before that its still 5"

[tattoo]

OK. 

[anchor]

you mean he only got 945.00 in fines total! i was drunk one night and got caught taking a piss outside my truck one night on a back road by a lady walking her dog and it was 1700.00 just to keep me outta jail plus a fine of 1050.00..... go figure our justice system blows

[tattoo]

wow.  I hear that. That really stinks. 

[Seaweed]

you mean he only got 945.00 in fines total! i was drunk one night and got caught taking a piss outside my truck one night on a back road by a lady walking her dog and it was 1700.00 just to keep me outta jail plus a fine of 1050.00..... go figure our justice system blows

I bet you were really pissed

[horsefly]

I bet you were really pissed

That's funny I'm sure he was glad to be "pissed off" verses being "pissed on" I'm sure he'll be checking next time before the zipper comes down

[tattoo]

I bet he will too.