Another commercial fisher fined

[taper]

Thought this might interest some.

 

Just read in yesterdays Free Press:

 

A Port Stanley commercial fisher has been fined $6500 for exceeding the walleye Quota on his commercial fishing licence.

Daniel Bastien, 43, was convicted of exceeding the walleye quota on his 2007 licence

by 2370 lbs.

Natural resources Ministry officials said Bastientold a port officer he was over quota

and that a quota transfer request had been submitted, but an investigation revealed

Bastien had landed fish three times after exceeding his quota.

Edited February 7, 2008 by taper

[outllaw]

yes the standard practice is. its the price of doing business. things will be tougher as quotas have been reduced. lake eries sportfish can not feed the world. when some folks realize this instead of corporate greed, the sportsmen in ontario would be better off.

[FISHINGNUT]

$6500 fine what a joke it should have been $65000 and loss of his eqiupment and a life time ban from fishing.Three times the legal limit is a pretty blaten disregard for the law.We need stiffer laws and penalties in this country to discourage this type of crap

[get it wet]

This is a joke, not his first offence either!!

 

Ask yourself, what did they do with the fish??

 

He sold them at $7 a pound wholesale plus scraps to cat or dog food....

 

Why wouldn't you cheat?

[Greencoachdog]

This so called fishermans actions are dispicable... but more or less typical. Their motto is "WE better get them before somebody else does", and if there weren't any regulations or anybody watching they would catch until there weren't any fish left. Then sit around and piss and moan about alll the fish being gone, blaming everyone but themselves.

 

This so called human being should have his commercial and sport fishing licenses revoked permanantly!!!

[TroutnMuskieHunter]

Well said GCD ....I agree 150%

[Fish Farmer]

Get this, the MNR is thinking of increasing the quotas for the commercial guys because the Walleye are starting to make a come back. I like their thinking . When your down don't get up I'll hit you with a bat.

You should see all the dead fish they throw over board when trolling a certain species . It would make you sick. They don't want to tell you that.

[Whopper]

This really ticks me off as it hits close to home. These people arn't fisherman there rapist.

 

Wish The MNR would follow suit with the State of Ohio at least on the walleye harvest

 

We have something going on here where the state may lower bag limit of perch from 30 to 25 that is going to upset a lot of people, they lowered it last year. Won't bother me if they lower it I will follow the rules.

[ShaunB]

Now correct me if I'm wrong but this is on Erie, and aren't there only about a hnadful of guys that can still fish for walleye there? That fine is laughable...I wonder how much money he mad off of that 2300lbs of walleye

[OhioFisherman]

Just another Honest businessman? The greed factor.

[waterwolf]

he's laughing alright, firstly for the ridiculas amount of that slap on the wrist called a fine ,secondly , how many times did he get away with this and even worse infractions? it hurts just doing the math on how many fish that represents to the fishery. i wouldn't mind hooking into 2300 lbs of walleye over the season. nail the @#$#@#% to the wall . no mercy for blatant disrespect for the law . that's a lot of fish and stiffer punishment is a definite on this issue . it's sad but he'll probably try this crap again.

[John]

$6500 fine what a joke it should have been $65000 and loss of his eqiupment and a life time ban from fishing.Three times the legal limit is a pretty blaten disregard for the law.We need stiffer laws and penalties in this country to discourage this type of crap

 

What it actually said is that he landed fish 3 times after his quota was exceeded. Having said that a $6500 fine is an overhead to him. 2300# of walleye will net him much more than the fine levied therefore there is nothing to deter him from doing it again and again.

[bramptonjerry]

the real beauty with these guys is they kill and throw all of the bigger fish away as top dollar is only paid on the smaller eaters....along with all of the incidental catches of other species

[LeXXington]

The fine is a joke, but at least they checked.

 

Send them down each day to check for violations do it enough at it gets too expensive. Those in the area send a note too your MPP to show your Anger!!!

[rickster]

There are some natives that occasionally come around selling walleye filets here in nw ontario they charge around five dollars a pound.

I have never bought any and never will as I prefer to catch my own fish thank you very much

so lets see about 2300 lbs of fish at five bucks a pound=====$11,500

and a 6500 dollar fine

 

There was just and article in the local paper of a guy mistakenly shooting a cow moose.

He said he was aiming at the calf and the cow got hit as they were running across a cut.

He got fined and had his hunting PRIVILEDGE taken away for i believe 18 months

 

This guy harvested these fish knowing full well he was over quota

and he can go out and do it again next year

 

GO FIGURE

[kennyman]

This makes me wonder how many times he has gotten away with it? I bet tons!!! So where is the deterrent? I think they should take the value of the fish over quota and give him a fine of double that amount + seize his boat and pull his license for a year. I mean,it's not like he came in and was 150# over quota, this was deliberate abuse of the system and our resource. His actions affect everyone and he should be made to pay. At $6500 he's still turning a profit, so why wouldn't he repeat? It's like like gambling $6500 and only one time out of ten you lose the money. The other nine times you make $10,000. Those are pretty good odds. Who wouldn't do it, especially if you have no conscience. The MNR had better smarten up or we'll have no fish left except asian carp and gobies.

[Spiel]

Here's another

[OhioFisherman]

You guys need to start a campaign, pressure by the sports fishermen here got the Commercial fisher mens walleye licenses bought out. Write letters to your public officials, email them.

 

Far more money is put into the economy by guys out fishing than a commercial fisherman, but getting everyone to complain to the leaders can be tough. They did it here in Ohio.

[jedimaster]

You and I fish for fun, thats why we follow the rules. This guy is fishing to pay his mortgage and put his kids through school. Thats why he cheats. Its no different in many other walks of life. If you can get away with it obviously you will try when it comes down to cash. Now oobviously not everyone is a cheat but many will...Look at baseball, football, etc... will we shoot steroids to throw 5 mph faster in our beer league? I doubt it, unless its your drinking arm maybe.

 

Just like in pro sports you gotaa toss em in jail and kick them out before they will stop cheating, and check on them all the time.

 

One guy won't ruin the fishery, but when the 100 other commercial guys know they will only get a small fine comapred to what they will make in profit they will ALL cheat.

 

Not good at all.

[Vanselena]

They get away with it because the commercial fisherman stick together for their rights. One commercial fisherman said that when there is a meeting with the government all of the commercial captains have a meeting first and then they all attend the meeting, in other words when the government is in a meeting there are 100 Captains in that meeting all with the same voice. The Government gets big licence fees from these guys.

 

The commercial guys laugh at us because when there is a change and a public hearing there are usually only one or two recreational fisherman at the meeting. If we want to change things then we have to move with numbers and in one accord.

 

 

My 2 cents