...and gets hit pretty hard.

The fines are not the big deal, but he lost his boat and all his gear, and that is a big deal. I hope that WDFW outfits his boat to be a night time recon boat for conducting surveillance during the gillnet fisheries on the Columbia.

http://www.columbian.com/sports/localNews/05102007news138164.cfm

Kelso gillnetter pleads guilty

Thursday, May 10, 2007
BY ALLEN THOMAS, Columbian staff writer

Fisherman had wild spring chinook, oversize

CATHLAMET — A Columbia River commercial fisherman has been sentenced to 160 hours of community service, fined almost $2,400 and lost his vessel and nets after pleading guilty to having six endangered wild spring chinook salmon and one oversize sturgeon.

Thomas Michael Tarabochia, 45, of Kelso, entered the guilty plea two weeks ago in Wahkiakum County District Court.

Charges of using too small of mesh gillnet, having no operable fish recovery box and failure to record fish on a transportation ticket were dismissed.

The incident occurred May 26, 2006.

Enforcement officers Dave Spurbeck and Jeff Wickersham of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife were checking boats at Cathlamet at midnight when Tarabochia sped to the ramp, met a vehicle at the water’s edge and several fish from the boat were tossed into the back of a pickup that quickly drove away.

Upon contact, the officers found six wild chinook and the oversize sturgeon.

A search of Tarabochia’s boat also found four fin-clipped spring chinook and seven legal sturgeon. Tarabochia was allowed to remove and keep the legal fish.

His boat was seized and taken to Beaver Creek Hatchery. Tarabochia has lost his appeal to get the boat, nets and electronic gear returned.

The equipment now belongs to the state.

He was fined $1,189 for each of the two counts.

*****************

Fish on...

Todd

Best news I've heard all week!

I think they went to lite on him,however it's better then what they have gotten away with in the past.Like Todd said hope they put the vessel to good work.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Turn it into an off shore reef during a very public ceremony. Maybe even hold a raffle to allow the winner to sink it.

It looks like justice was served by making the penalty substantially greater than the potential gain from a half dozen illegal springers and one sturgeon. Of course the real measure is how many times could he repeat that action and not get caught? If he's been doing this every year, and this was the first time he was caught, the penalty might just pencil out as part of the cost of doing business. I think the state should have retained the three charges that were dropped.

Its about time some of those guys start to pay for their ignorance.

One down hundreds to go...

Keith

I'm sure the reason that most of the charges were dropped is because his lawyer plea-bargained it down to a guilty plea on just a couple charges if the others were dropped. Over a year down the road the perp finally gets his day. If he had plead not guilty, then the verdict would have been appealed which means even longer before a ruling. Is it any wonder why LE gets frustrated? Guy got a pissy $200/month fine (ruled a year after the violation), and some department gets a boat. Whoopie! Sea Lions ate how many?? Each day??

Charges of using too small of mesh gillnet, having no operable fish recovery box and failure to record fish on a transportation ticket were dismissed.

So where is the gillneters' impact on steelhead addressed for use of the smaller mesh???

I doubt there were many steelhead around in May when he was caught...if he had some in the boat, he'd have been popped for that, too.

Fish on...

Todd

That is good. If you have the ability to be a commerical netter, you should know the rules.... and abide by them. If you do not then you should have your boat tooken, because either you dont care or are STUPID, no boat for you stupid guy.

So was he fishing for shad around this time last year???

Really appears to me like he was after anything that could be sold legally or on the black market.

What became of his gillnet permit??? IMHOThat would be the only real way to pull the trigger, ending this crap.

Hans

What a $hithead.

tooken?

I guess I don't get what happened.
He was allowed to keep his "legal" springers and Sturgeon that were caught with a gill net. First, if he had all these violations and was obviously trying to break the law why did they let him keep them?
Second, what are they supposed to do with the wild fish and oversize? Throw them back? Wouldn't they most likely be dead?
Last I checked the nets don't know the difference between hatchery and wild Chinook...

The oversize might very well have been alive unless he outright killed it. Those things can stay alive for a long time. Then again, if they released it, there goes the evidence.

I suspect a plea bargin on the dropped charges. I agree that he should lose his license. If he decides to get out of the commercial fishing business, he can still sell his license and that probably isn't going to go cheaply. He'll re-coup some of his costs.

you'll have to look long and hard to find a case in Oregon history where a commercial fishing license was taken for any reason. It is their paycheck and the state has yet to take one. Washington may be different, but Oregon doesn't take commercials paycheck.

Guides are a whole different story. 1 ticket and you're on probation. Two tickets and you lose your CG license and sportfishing license for 2 years. CG can take you licensse for 6 years if they want.

I lost my sport license in Oregon in 1999 for possesing a duplicate salmon tag. $2500 fine and loss of sportfishing & hunting lic for 2 years. I didn't play by the rules and got hammered. It's pretty cut and dry here in Oregon.