The Alaska State Troopers today issued the following press release:
Jan. 13, 2011
Alaska lodge guilty of sale of sport fish
JUNEAU — The Doc Warner's lodge near Juneau received a sentence today following a multiagency investigation beginning in the summer of 2009.
Doc Warner's lodge is an Alaskan limited liability corporation. Investigators with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did an undercover operation at the lodge in 2009. Investigators were fed sport-caught fish as a part of the paid package during their stay. Employees of Doc Warner's admitted that fish fed to clients was sport-caught by other clients and/or employees.
Alaska law provides that no person may buy, sell or barter sport-caught fish or their parts. A violation of this law is punishable as a class A misdemeanor offense and a corporation that violates this law may be punished by a fine of up to $200,000 per offense.
NOAA turned the investigation over to state authorities for further investigation by Alaska Wildlife Troopers and prosecution by the Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals.
The Office of Special Prosecutions charged Doc Warner’s Alaska Fishing Inc. with four counts of sale of sport-caught fish for the years 2006-2009.
On Jan. 13, 2009, the corporation entered a guilty plea to one consolidated charge of sale of sport-caught fish in violation of 5 AAC 75.015.
Judge Nave imposed the agreed upon sentence of a fine of $40,000 with $30,000 suspended, informal probation for a period of two years, with the conditions that the corporation commit no new law violations, including fish and game offenses.
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A thumbs up goes out to NOAA for the investigation and the Judge for the sentence. It's about time these lodge owner crooks in Southeast are penalized for their actions. The 2C halibut longline quota has been decimated by these sport morons grossly exceeding their GHL year in and year out with no repercussions. Maybe were in for a change, but hopefully it's not too late for the fishery to rebound.
ReplyDeleteLodges are often left with fish that customers opt not to take home. I find it interesting that if someone finds a use for it, we have a law that would beat them up for it. I guess they could deliver it to the glory hole or some other non profit group to defer their costs.
ReplyDeleteI also find it interesting this was a "multi-agency" sting. I wonder what that cost us.
Really, it's illegal for a lodge cook to prepare someone's fish for them? They could get VERY sick from the potentially fresh and nutritious fish, while the same government feeds our children tasteless garbage in our schools, and allows huge corperations to sell us beef prepared in the most unsanitary ways. Thank goodness we have the government to make sure we don't kill ourselves.
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