Reported on the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife Facebook Page:
On August 25th, Detective Moscatiello and Conservation Police Officer Woerner conducted an overnight patrol along the Manasquan River in Brielle, Monmouth County.
Acting on a tip, the Fish and Wildlife officers began surveillance of three fishermen suspected of harvesting undersized striped bass. Two of the fishermen packed up and made their way back to their vehicle where the officers were waiting to inspect their catch. The two fishermen were found to be in possession of 31 undersized striped bass. CPO Woerner then went out and scooped up the third fisherman, found to be in possession of an additional 15 undersized striped bass. The fishermen were issued court-mandatory summonses for possession of undersized and over-limit striped bass.
On September 25th, 2018 the individuals charged in the above incident appeared before the Brielle Boro Municipal Court.
Domingo Rodriguez, 51, of Bethlehem, PA pled guilty to one charge of possession of 15 undersized striped bass and one charge of possession of 13 striped bass over the daily limit. A combined penalty of $2512 was assessed, plus court costs.
Luis A. Rivera Feliciano, 37, of Allentown, PA pled guilty to one charge of possession of 14 undersized striped bass, and one charge of possession of 12 striped bass over the daily limit. A combined penalty of $2012 was assessed, plus court costs.
Victor M. Rivas, 52, of Bethlehem, PA pled guilty to one charge of possession of 17 undersized striped bass and one charge of possession of 16 striped bass over the daily limit. A combined penalty of $3012 was assessed, plus court costs.
Rivas had a prior conviction in 2015 for striped bass violations. Rivas’ hunting and freshwater fishing license privileges are now suspended for two years in New Jersey. The suspension has been reported to the 46 other member states of the Interstate Wildlife Violator’s Compact, which may impose license suspensions as well.
Good job by the officers but the penalty is not enough for this kind of people specially if they have this problem issue in the pass. Thank you
2nd time should never be able to fish in NJ again!
Nah they shouldn’t be able to fish anywhere every again. Poachers don’t learn.
Nice job, and thank you to the person or people who call the tip in.
? to the officers, we need more enforcement with even stiffer penalties when it comes to people who blatantly have no respect for the law. It would be different if it was 1 fish and they were starving , but 12-17 or more. Next time they should be invited to go out shark fishing and use them as bait
Great job Jim and the same to your partner, but like the other guys said it was not good enough.They should have been stripped of their gear and worse, but I hope the point was driven across and they think twice before doing it again.
They take your gun when you illegally hunt but they cant take your fishing rod and reel? They need to impose stricter regulations on these fools.
They don’t want to take cheap $30 combo from Walmart. Storage fees would cost more.
Nice to see people held accountable for this environmental crime. There is a really easy solution for this as the previous posters have stated – fine them a massive number per fish – lets do the math – @ $2000 per fish, have them fork over $30,000, $28,000, $34,000 respectively. At $150 to $175 per fish, they clearly rolled the dice this time and lost but who know how many time they won ? The penalty has to be enough to stop these types of clowns.
I take my hat off to the fish game and wildlife officers who made this bust.You can tell these guys have probably been doing this kind of stuff all along. Great job! I wish they had gotten a stiffer penalty but I’m very happy they got caught!!!!
When we designate stripped bass as a fish that cannot be purchased or served in a restaurant I believe that much of this poaching would end.
I would love to buy these conservation officers a coffee. Thank you!
Impound their vehicles used in the committing of a crime at least. Slaps on the wrist.
Good job by the conservation officers, but did the court make them pay up or let them pay 25 a month for years?
This is not the first time they did this! How many times have they stolen this precious resource before they got caught! Thousands of pounds of illegal striped bass are caught commercially and by so called recreational fisherman every year. The violators who get caught are given a slap on the wrist. NJ has an undermanned staff of conservation officers
and can’t cover all of the coast. Other states confiscate vehicles and equipment and sometime hand out jail time. I lived through the times when striped bass were a rarity.
the shutdown in the late 80’s brought them back from the brink. Please let’s not get back to that!!!!!
It’s going right back there. The numbers of young of year do not support the harvesting going on. The fish being taken now are from the late 90’ and early 2000s. The 2011 year class that was supposed to save everything is missing in action as they should all be 28-34” by now.
Why do they do this? It’s always the same guys. Should be thrown in jail
This is going to keep happening until they increase the penalties for these offenses. These fish are worth too much on the black market, those penalties assessed are probably about one nights take for these guys. Increase the penalties, seize their gear, (including boat or car), and revoke their fishing licenses, they WILL get the message.
I think of all the illegal fish that are taken further south than me. Reduces my chances of catching a fish. Not big enough fines. That many fish, seize cars and everything. They knew what they were doing.
Congrats to the officer’s! The scary thing is how many more fish were taken before they got caught? Confiscate their boat and equipment and lets see if they continue ?
I agree with most of the comments here…great job by the officers. But will these criminals actually “pay” for these crimes?? How about banning them from entering the state 2 years?? Or at least a little jail time. These crimes steal from everyone in NJ as well as the future since these fish have not had the chance to procreate (enough).
If this happened in Maine, these low life’s would never be allowed to fish again. At $10 a pound for fresh Striper, this is slap on the wrist and the second offender should do jail time also. Enough is enough !Wayne G. Barber, radio host of the Outdoor Scene
Horrible. Good job by the conservation officers but they should loose the privilege of being able to fish. It is a privilege and after fishing for 42 years I have seen the decline in the striped bass and my heart breaks.
I wish they enforced the law like that over here in Springfield Mass
Poachers deprive fishermen and women the opportunity to lawfully harvest fish while reducing fish numbers needlessly. The poachers not only steal from the State but also the citizens of that State whether they fish or not. Kudos to the game officers ,law enforcement officers and judiciary for a job well done.
I agree with most of these comments. Great work by the arresting officers, but way too light a penalty considering the offense. When people like these cheat the system, it’s like spitting in the face of honest sportsmen and women.
Thank you to the conservation LEOs for the job they do. To my fellow law-abiding sportsmen, “if you see something, say something” applies here also. What I’d give to be able to drop a dime on dirtbags like the subjects of this story!
1.Remove their licenses life time..
2.$250 for each under size fish
3.2nd offense then minimum 6 months + jail time
4.$500 gift check for each officers..!
Only problem in the world are the humans……
So, ok. First: who’s going to buy a bass from pouchers for 10$ per lb. Maximum they can get 10-15$ for undersized fish. Second: Average jailed person cost about 30K $ per year in prison. Tax money. Ur money.
Then big fine is ok. 2nd time — even bigger fine with confiscation of all stuff involved. cars,rods , etc.
I’d rather see the officers do their job here in NYC by catching all those (manly chinese, bangladesh ) bastards,who every season take all those undersized crabs, thousands of peanut bunker, even small spearings in siene nets, who go for herring with 20-30 hooks sabiki, etc.
They should have been given a year in jail and a fine of 500 thousand dollars each
For a crime of this magnitude, jail time as well as license revocation and (huge) fine must be leveled.
First time a bigger fine and loss of privilege to fish for 2 years. A second time, 25k in fines and 2 years in prison. The fines are not big enough nor is the threat of losing their license. It needs to be very steep as the worth of those fish far exceeds their fine.
The should have taken their car
That’s the only way you are going to discourage this and stop these guys from doing it again.
These guy are most likely selling these fish.
So they got caught this time …..these guys Are probAbly laughing at the fines
Cost of doing business for this scum.
GREEDY BASTARDS!!!
I 1,000% agree with all. They should be fined $2000 per fish and placed in jail for at least 6 months.
For sure, that will discourage them in the future.
Who knows how many they caught or sold before they got caught. They probably made more money then they paid in fines.
I used to Striper fish the Jersey coast from Sandy Hook to Long Island beach. I belonged to the Jersey Surfsters back in the sixties. Have seen similar poaching on Plum Island, MA.
Great work by NJ officers;
We all need to do what we can for the next generation of fisherman!
Were they undocumented?
Have to agree w all the comments above, much stiffer penalties are needed !! More than anything, there aren’t enough officers to cover our waters,so we have to help by keeping our eyes open, n when you see a violation, big or small make the call to F.G.W. Service!! We ‘ve got to show these Scum Bags that we are all in this together and that poaching won’t be tolerated!! Local officers will give you their card n they can be on the scene that much faster !!! ❌litter ❌ poaching!!??