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February 25, 2009 by
Here’s more proof (as if you need any) that wildlife poachers aren’t the brightest bulbs in the socket.
For a pair of University of Toledo students, it wasn’t enough to illegally kill a deer in a city park at night during the first week of October. No, they decided to show off the big buck, driving it around and taking it to a nearby sporting goods mega-store, where it was viewed by multiple witnesses.
Later, they began posting photos of 15-point whitetail on various Internet hunting sites, claiming it was killed by one of the young men hunting with a longbow.
The kicker: It was even posted on the Ohio Division of Wildlife Website featuring trophy deer taken by hunters in The Buckeye State.
The two ne’er-do-wells just might have gotten away with their wildlife crime if it weren’t for a few details they overlooked.
For starters, the mega-buck from Side Cut Metro Park was a favorite among park users, as well as among local photographers. Its distinctive rack featured a large drop tine with a peculiar shape.
The local fans of the massive buck who called him “Big Boy” and “Sticker” immediately realized when he was missing from the park.
So when photos of one of the men posed with the deer began circulating, it was just a matter of time until someone recognized the big bruiser and matched up some of the many photos taken of him over the years.
As a result, the tips to Ohio’s Turn in a Poacher hotline started coming in like gangbusters.
Justin Angles, 20, of Fostoria, and Dave Mahoney, 20, of Akron were subsequently convicted of multiple charges, including taking a deer by illegal means and illegal possession of deer parts.
Last week during their sentencing hearing they were ordered to pay a total of $13,278.60 in fines and restitution—the largest amount ever imposed in an Ohio poaching case.
Both young men were also ordered to serve 60 hours of community service and had their hunting privileges suspended for three years.
The fines were calculated using a new restitution formula for exceptional trophy-class deer that became law in Ohio last year. This case marked the second time the new formula—based on the Boone and Crockett scoring system—was used in a poaching case.
[ Read Full Post ]February 19, 2009 by
Based on new scientific data indicating that nearly three times the number of black bears live in the state than previously estimated, the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board voted unanimously last week to increase the bear kill quota by 55 percent
As a result, for the 2009 Wisconsin bear-hunting season, the quota will be raised to 4,585 and the number of hunting permits raised to 7,310, a 57 percent increase.
As recently as 2007 the Wisconsin DNR estimated that there were 13,000 black bears in the state, but a comprehensive research study completed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008 revealed a bear count closer to 37,000.
Last week’s DNR staff recommendation was praised by representatives of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress Bear Committee, the Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association and the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation prior to the board’s vote.
In the past, the DNR monitored the bear population by using the age of bears that are killed, permit success rates, agricultural and nuisance complaints, and visitations at bear bait stations.
The study by University of Wisconsin graduate student Dave MacFarland with guidance from Timothy van Deelen, Ph.D., was more detailed.
“We believed there were more bears than we were being told. We were skeptical about the DNR doing anything about it,” said Bob Welch, representing the Bear Hunters Association. “We are very happy about the way this came out, and very pleased how the department adopted the study.”
[ Read Full Post ]February 14, 2009 by
It should come as no surprise to regular readers of the Newshound blog that those who choose to deliberately break game and fish regulations are usually not the “sharpest tools in the shed,” so to speak.
Case in point:
A convicted felon prohibited by law from owning firearms or legally hunting didn’t let that stop him from an unusually bone-headed poaching attempt in Bay County, Fla. last week.
In the course of a night-time stakeout, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers Dennis Palmer and Mark Clements witnessed a man instruct his girlfriend’s 13-year-old daughter to shoot at an agency’s mechanical deer decoy—twice—while her mother illuminated the fake whitetail with their pickup truck’s headlights.
The weekly citations report from the FWC did not name the subjects involved in the incident.
According to the FWC, all three were cited for night hunting and road hunting. Fortunately (for them), being incredibly dumb is (currently) not a criminal offense in Florida. Otherwise, additional charges could have been applied in the case.
[ Read Full Post ]February 4, 2009 by
A sharp-eyed California fisheries researcher perusing the Internet recently was shocked after he recognized an endangered and highly protected salmon species appearing on a local tackle shop’s fishing contest Web site!
The coho salmon is a species that has been severely impacted in certain regions of the West in recent years, and its annual return to some California rivers for spawning has fallen to dramatically low levels. In fact, on the Russian River, once considered a prime coho fishery, only two fish were documented by biologists during last year’s spawn.
It is a species strictly protected and considered endangered by both the federal and state governments.
That’s why a photo spotted by UC Davis Extension researcher Joe Pecharich on the Internet proved particularly troubling to him. There, pictured on the Web site of a Guerneville, Calif. tackle shop’s fishing contest, was an angler with a large salmon--and it was definitely a coho.
“When I first saw the picture, I was scrolling the Web site and said ‘Oh no! That’s a coho!’” said Pecharich.
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat newspaper reported that Nick Wheeler, manager of King’s Sport and Tackle, admitted it was all a huge mistake.
“The coho are hard to distinguish between the steelhead and chinook, and we have not had coho runs,” said Wheeler. “I haven’t seen a coho, other than that one.”
The name of the angler who caught and entered the fish was not made public. An endangered species act violation is punishable by fines up to $1,000 and six months in jail. The infraction is currently under investigation.
Particularly troubling to Pecharich and others involved in the coho restoration effort was the fact that the fish in question was a female, and could have potentially spawned and laid about 3,000 eggs.
The Press Democrat story notes that the state of California distributes fliers to fishing shops that explain the differences between the coho and other salmon species.
“The solution is to have good angler education so people who do go out to fish really know the difference, so if they accidentally hook the coho they can put it back in the water unharmed, with as little damage as possible,” said Manfred Kittel, who heads the state coho recovery program.
[ Read Full Post ]
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