Phil Coates
Retired former director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries
Hello My Fishing Cape Cod! As I write this article, it is another lovely spring morning here on the Cape. With active stocking by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, plus warming waters, my son Jeff reported that trout fishing is improving - but I've yet to wet a line, due to a number of distracting projects to deal with.
One of the most important of those is doing what I can to promote a joint DMF/Environmental Police project to increase the fines and penalties for marine fisheries violations, like poaching at the Cape Cod Canal.
The two agencies labored long and hard to come up with an acceptable package in 2016 and submitted it to the Commissioner of the Dept of Fish and Game for further review, and then from there it went to the Baker Administration for final review and action.
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The 2018 Environmental Affairs Bond Bill
It took a while but the Administration has put this fines and penalties package into the 2018 Environmental Affairs Bond Bill and submitted it to the Legislature. The Bond Bill is now in the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture and they held a public hearing on it last Wednesday.
According to a Committee staffer there was no opposition to the fines and penalties package at the hearing. Below is a letter from DMF Deputy Director Dan McKiernan's that summarizes the proposal.
A letter summarizing the proposal, from DMF Deputy Direction Dan McKiernan
Greetings,
I am writing to inform you that Gov. Baker has filed legislation to modernize and enhance the marine fishery fines and penalties as part of the Environmental Bond Bill. If you have not already, please submit letters to DMF in support of the Environmental Bond Bill H. 4318, particularly as it pertains to marine fishery fines and penalties (Sections 37-78). Letters should be sent to the attention of Director David Pierce via e-mail at [email protected] or by post to 251 Causeway Street, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114.
These changes to marine fisheries fines and penalties are being proposed because existing fines and penalties are decades old and do not serve as sufficient economic deterrents to violations. These updated fines and penalties were developed by DMF with the MA Environmental Police and the Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission. In summary, these updated fines and penalties reflect the input and experience of the state marine fisheries regulators, environmental law enforcement officers and industry stakeholders, and address non-criminal and criminal violations consistently.
In most instances of non-compliance, a non-criminal citation is issued. This proposed legislation would: (1) double the existing non-criminal citations tiers to $100, $200 and $400 per offense; (2) scale up or scale a tier certain non-criminal citations to reflect current conservation priorities (e.g., river herring violations have been moved from the lowest tier to the middle tier to recognize the status of the stock and the current regulatory ban); (3) allow for a $10 per fish additional fine to be added to any non-criminal citation. In the most egregious cases, criminal citations may be issued. This proposed legislation would establish a standard criminal penalty for all but a few violations consisting of a $400 – $10,000 fine and up to 2.5 years imprisonment. Lastly, it allows for the issuance of a civil penalty of up to $10,000; this would only be used in the most severe cases and would require the action be taken by the Attorney General.
Thank you for your interest in this important legislation,
Daniel J. McKiernan
Deputy Director
Division of Marine Fisheries
What This Means For
Striped Bass
I may be wrong but I recall the last significant remodification of the marine fisheries laws of any note occurred in the 1980’s. Needless to say, fines and penalties back then (which were considered adequate to deter most violators) are totally inadequate in the 21st century.
As an example, the current three-tiered non-criminal fine schedule, of $50, $100, and $200 is viewed by many as no deterrent whatsoever. These poachers often use the term “it’s the cost of doing business” when cited by Environmental Police.
I’ll leave it up to you folks to weigh the impact of a $200 fine on a commercial striped bass poacher who can catch up to $4,500 dollars worth of bass in one week. The proposed doubling of non-criminal fines will definitely give some of the poachers pause.
Equally important are the proposed significant increases in badly dated criminal fines and penalties which are needed to deal with the more egregious violators.
As you well know, in this increasingly complex world, opportunities abound to cheat the systems and it’s unfortunate that among the several thousand commercial harvesters and estimated one million recreational fishers who enjoy Massachusetts waters, there are those who have no qualms about violating the rules and regulations.
Collectively, the impact of these smaller scale offenders adds up to erosion of the quality of our striped bass fishery that extends far beyond our bays and estuaries.
What You Can Do To Help
Fishery managers, scientists and enforcement personnel and many of the fishing public have labored long and hard to maintain and nurture our fishery resources. I and my fishing colleagues respectfully request that you support these much-needed proposals and work toward enactment of this legislation.
Written comments on this very important legislation (House Bill 4318) will be accepted until April 20th.
From my previous experience, well written, thoughtful comments are definitely of interest to the legislators.
Please email your well written and thoughtful comments to Director David Pierce via e-mail at [email protected] or by post to 251 Causeway Street, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114
I know the My Fishing Cape Cod blog does not get very political for a number of reasons, which I understand. However this is important stuff that should be of interest and concern to many of My Fishing Cape Cod's enlightened readers.
I realize that there are other significant issues regarding enforcement of our marine fisheries and they, too, are being worked on but this legislation contains an emergency preamble which could mean implementation this year. Anything members of the MFCC community can do to get the word out will be appreciated.
Thanks for your work on this.
I wish the fines were much higher!……
Hi WedgeWorld,
Thanks for your comment and see my replys below regarding the severity of the non criminal and per/fish fines.
Phil
Great article neighbor!
I’m actually suprised the fines aren’t more severe.When they say $100 to $400 dollar fines per event does that include multiple fish? Why not make it like $500 per fish over the limit.That would certainly help erase any profit margin the poachers may have made previously. My personal vote for punishment would be posting pictures of the poachers along the canal.
Kevin nice to see you on m.f.c.c. I agree the bass pirates have had their day for too long. Dan
Hi Daniel,
Glad you enjoyed the article. I tend to agree with you regarding the severity of the fines but a doubling will likely give some of the poachers pause to “think”. It’s also important to know that these are non-criminal penalties and the original focus was on first time, naive or ignorant violators. Unfortunately, the Environmental Police have had to deal with more repeat offenders and undoubtedly the non-criminal citation has become been a “tool of convenience” under some circumstances. Significant repeat offenders have received criminal citations, however, but as any EPO will tell you, the Courts handle fisheries and wildlife crimes very inconsistently, to put it kindly. I should mention that the Bill contains significant and very appropriate increases in criminal penalties.
There is a provision in the Bond Bill to also assess a per fish additional penalty but it’s not big enough to deter bass poachers. Lastly, the Division of Marine Fisheries has the power to revoke violators commercial and recreational permits and in fact, DMF and the Dept of Fish and Game have expanded this very effective deterrent. It’s a cumbersome process, but if poachers start losing their permits the word will get out, particularly if DMF aggressively publicizes these sanctions.
Phil
Hi Kevin,
Looks like I misdirected my reply to Daniel instead of you. See reply below on that and to answer your question about the per/fish extra penalty, I believe the drafters of this provision were not looking at just striped bass when they put in the $10 per/fish fine. I agree with you that $10 per striped bass is peanuts but for scup or bluefish it’s more significant. Ideally, a sliding scale based on the value of the fish would better address our concerns but I believe there is a specific higher fine for striped bass in another section of the Marine Fisheries Statutes. I’ll check that and repost.
Phil
Love it! Thank you for the well written article, I will be sending an email.
Hi haydeng
Glad you enjoyed it. Hold your email until I can update you on the progress of the bill, H-4318, which will likely leave the Joint Ctte on Environment, Natural Resource and Agriculture as early as tomorrow and end up in the House Ways and Means Ctte. after a brief stop in the Bond Ctte.
Phil Coates
Phil,
I appreciated your article, got fired up and wrote David Pierce an email expressing my thoughts. Thanks for rallying the MFCC members.
Hi Ron,
Thanks for your appreciation and for Emailing Dave Pierce. Ryan and I will get back to the membership soon on the progress of the Bond Bill, H4318, as it will likely need additional support as it heads through the Legislature.
Phil
Tremendous article Phil. It is definitely time to increase those fines. Thank you for contributing and I will look forward to seeing this bill pass ??
Phil,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. And also, thanks for your years of state service.
I will send an email tomorrow AM.
Warren Fairbanks
Hi Warren,
You’re welcome on both counts. The Bond Bill is due to leave the Legislature’s Environmental Ctte as early as tomorrow and I’ll be updating the MFCC membership on progress because it will likely need additional help.
Phil
Thanks for this information. I have just sent an email to Director Pierce
in support of this legislation.
Thanks, Ron and I’ll be updating all you MFCC members on the progress of this important legislation (H4318).
Phil
Thank you Phil. Will see you, and Jeff soon.
Hi Jake,
You’re welcome and it was nice to visit with you and Cathy last Saturday.
Dakota also says hi.
Phil
Another example of the really outstanding social communication from and to members of the MFCC community … well done Phil. Stepping up for a cause that we all should understand, one way or the other … well done.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks Jeff, and want you and the MFCC membership to know that the Bond Bill (H4318) will be leaving the Environmental Ctte as soon as tomorrow and will begin it’s journey through the Legislature via the House Bond Ctte and the House Ways and Means Committee and then hopefully on to the Senate. We’ll be tracking it and keep the MFCC updated.
Phil
I wrote to David Pierce this morning to express my support for increased penalties.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your support. I plan to keep the MFCC membership updated on the Bond Bill’s (H4318) progress through the Legislature.
Phil
Email to David being drafted now!
One thing that would be extremely helpful to someone who is new to the canal, such as myself, is some suggestions on how to report potential violations.
Thanks for such a great article, I had no idea that this legislation was being considered.
~tim
Hi Tim,
Thanks for you support and we intend to keep the MFCC membership updated on the progress of this important Environmental Bond Bill (H4318) as it progresses through the Legislature.
To report violations, call the Environmental Police hotline (1-800-632-8075).
They are also reachable via Email at I believe http://www.mass.gov/ole and lastly if you google them @ mass environmental police they have a Online Report Form you can fill out and send.
Hope this helps.
Phil
Phil,
Thank you for your work to combat poaching in Massachusetts. This, and other issues such as culling have long angered many members of MFCC. Just seeing the white bellies of dead, discarded bass floating by in the Canal current will really get the blood boiling.
I will write an email to David Pierce this afternoon.
Hi Dex,
Thanks for your comment. The Environmental Affairs Bond Bill (H-4318) is now in the Legislature and due to clear the Joint Environment Committee shortly and head to and hopefully through the House Bond Ctte and House Ways and Means Ctte. and then move on to the Senate. We intend to keep the MFCC membership up to date on it’s progress and may be looking for further support if we see problems.
I read your well written and interesting article on the Striped Bass YOY index.
Phil