It was a busy Saturday night on Georgica Pond for the East Hampton Town Marine Patrol as numerous people were ticketed for illegally harvesting blue-claw crabs — an ever-growing poaching problem, say town officials, and one that they are struggling to get the upper hand on.
The tickets were written to 16 poachers, all of whom hailed from UpIsland and New York City, and none of whom had a town shellfishing permit. The police log from that night noted that a vehicle was “dropping off dozens of people to the crabbing area of Georgica Pond” after midnight — highlighting that for every poacher who gets a ticket and loses their ill-gotten bounty, many others do not.
Town officials describe what has become a now-annual onslaught of organized, late-night poaching pods hitting town beaches well prepared to avoid detection.
