Night Clamming
On October 8, ECO Grady received a call from Town of Brookhaven Public Safety Officers who intercepted two male subjects with shellfish near Mount Sinai Harbor. The subjects snuck out of the woods with buckets at about 8:30 p.m., and were waiting to be picked up when spotted by the Officers. As ECO Grady approached, one of the subjects fled. She found clam rakes and several buckets of hard clams in a wooded area near the harbor, which is seasonably uncertified for shellfish because the shellfish are unsafe for human consumption. It is also unlawful to take shellfish at night, after sunset. The subject in custody received tickets for taking shellfish from an uncertified area, possessing a commercial quantity of shellfish at night, and not having a shellfish digger permit. All charges are misdemeanors pending in Suffolk County First District Court.
Violations Continue Around Fire Island Inlet
ECOs Dickson and Perkins continue to find anglers keeping tautog before the season and black sea bass of less than legal size. On Oct. 8, while patrolling Captree and Robert Moses State Parks, the Officers issued tickets to multiple fishermen for taking out-of-season tautog, undersized and over-limit sea bass, and winter flounder out of season. On the night of Oct. 9, ECOs Perkins and Anderson found people illegally taking fish with a net in the dark at Jones Beach State Park. They ticketed two separate groups of four anglers for taking a total of 89 undersized sea bass, which put them more than 30 fish over the limit. The second group had an undersized striped bass, as well.
