https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/27/sea-cucumber-poacher-washington

Funny that this story doesn't seem to be on any of the local news sources.

This is the same guy that I always suspected of wiping out the scallop and
abalone population on the Straits near Port Angeles when I was the Fisheries Sgt. there in the mid '80's. Really hard to catch divers poaching when they leave their catch on the bottom. We shouldn't let such a high number of urchins and cucumbers be taken out of our waters, anyway. Why does WDFW permit it? They are there for an environmental balance purpose. Our state has an ugly history of over-harvest and sending it to Asia so a few can profit.

WDFW manages in Silos. Each species is evaluated only on its performance. For example, nothing eats the target species except humans (in the models to develop harvest rates/MSY). They can, and do, show excellent, defensible models that will say "take so many, leave so many". In total vacuum this might work.

In the real world, if you take too many clams something that eats baby clams has less food (herring?). Then, since they have less food there are fewer of them and whatever eats them is shorted. And so o until the SRKW starve.

Could you explain what you mean by leaving their catch on the bottom?

Pretty self-explanatory, don't ya think?

I'm a diver. I have a bag, bin, bucket, or whatever full of critters that I just illegally harvested, collected, and poached. I'm notified by my lookouts above that enforcement is upon us. I drop and leave whatever critters and gear I have down on the bottom. I come up and say "Hi offifcer. I'm just out for a nice Sunday dive."

Officer has no real proof of any activity of what that poacher did or didn't do unless the officer finds the critters on their boat or in their possession.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply

The courts need to start coming down harder on people that do this stuff. 2 years and fines he'll never pay seems light as hell to me. Everybody involved (divers, buyers,etc) should've got some state hotel time in my opinion. If the punishment isn't severe enough to out weigh the rewards...somebody else will step in to fill his shoes.

Parker pretty much summed it up. In the first geoduck case, the big one which was the largest successfully prosecuted natural resource case in the history of the U.S., 1986, 87, 88, Bruce Moore and I surprised an illegal dive boat, but weren't sure about it. Something just wasn't right. Lots of investigation by Moore. Excellent work. Long, long story. Tons of geoducks harvested off of illegal areas. Divers worked from yacht type vessel constructed with thru-hull fittings. No davits visible, etc. No air supply or hi-pressure hoses visible, etc. Long investigation by Fishcops found that many times more 'ducks shipped thru SeaTac than reported. First RICO conviction in history of state (Not Seattle PD, not FBI....just Washington Fisheries Patrol. Source of great pride for me and my cohorts. Dive fisheries like 'ducks, urchins, cukes are the big issues in poaching in our state. Aint it great the enforcement has been cut back since WDFW merged the two agencies? Is enforcement deployed correctly? Basically not, I think. Lots of tickets written for barbed hooks, no parking permit, etc. Some great work done by a few, but not enough right kind of work by some. Just my opinion. Law enforcement needs to be prioritized at WDFW.

I thought there was a dramatic decrease in sea cucumbers in Puget Sound. I wonder if poaching had something to do with it. A friend of mine was diving for DNR monitoring harvest and he would go around diving and find wasted geoducks.

In reading that article I find it of concern that the Feds prosecuted only this individual under the Lacey Act and have not utilized that same Lacey Act to prosecute other large scale violators. FYI the Lacey Act also covers tribal members who illegally harvest and sell wildlife.

Only the prime goods make it to the surface.