Officials with the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game say they busted a man who was in possession of 14 oversized striped bass, and who admitted that he planned to sell the illegally harvested fish in neighboring Massachusetts. The unidentified poacher was “caught red-handed” Wednesday after NHFG received multiple tips from anglers who witnessed him keeping far more than the legal limit of one oversized fish per angler, according to a Facebook post by the agency.
The anglers first spotted the boat, which had a Massachusetts hull number, fishing late at night with no running lights off the New Hampshire coast near New Castle and Rye.
“A bunch of anglers were yelling at him, ‘We’re calling Fish and Game. You can’t keep those! Put them back,” NHFG Lt. Delayne Brown told WMUR News.
The poacher then fled the scene as tips kept coming into the agency from concerned anglers. NHFG officers searched for the poacher that night, enlisting help from the local police, along with authorities in Maine and Massachusetts. The Portsmouth Police Department eventually located the man at a local boat ramp, where he’d trailered his boat and was “in the act of ditching the fish,” according to NHFG.
When officers questioned the man, he confessed that he intended to sell the 14 stripers, which ranged from 37 to 47 inches long, under a commercial fishing permit in Massachusetts. Brown told reporters the fish could be worth up to $1,600.
Unlike neighboring Massachusetts, which has a quota allowing commercial boats to take up to 15 striped bass over 35 inches, New Hampshire prohibits the sale of any striped bass caught from its waters. NHFG regulations do allow recreational anglers to keep one fish per day between 28 and 31 inches. But even then, many anglers refrain from keeping fish — especially the big breeders.
Photo courtesy New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game
“Those fish that he killed, those are all big breeding female fish,” local captain and fishing guide Peter Whelan told WMUR. “Some of those fish are 25 years old. They swim back and forth from New Hampshire to Chesapeake Bay … those fish come back to the same spots every year, so we’re really trying to protect the resource.”
In its post, NHFG thanked the local angling community for promptly reporting the poacher. He’s been charged with licensing violations and will be fined for each fish that was possessed illegally, according to the agency, and the seized fish will be donated upon his conviction.
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Officials also say this poacher was one of several commercial fishermen from Massachusetts who’ve been caught keeping oversized bass and overlimits of fish in recent weeks. The week before, officers had increased their nighttime patrols due to “increased suspicious activity,” and they apprehended multiple fishermen after finding evidence that they were taking striped bass to fill their commercial quotas in Massachusetts.
“Officers seized evidence — to include fish and equipment — to prosecute the pending charges which include overlimits of fish, oversized fish, and the use of gaffs,” NHFG explained in a separate Facebook post on July 17. The agency said the two states are working together in the investigation and will donate the seized fish after court proceedings wrap up.