On June 18th, Westport Massachusetts’ assistant harbormaster, Kevin Carter, was dropping off a Massachusetts State Environmental Police Officer when he spotted a boat idling at the dock. Carter immediately felt that something wasn’t right, “They asked me for fuel, but their engine was running.” In an attempt to throw the authorities off of their trail, the men tried to send the harbormaster off on an errand, but he saw through it.
In short order, Massachusetts Environmental Police boarded the boat and opened the five coolers they had stowed on deck. “We were shocked to see how many fish were actually in those coolers, and they were counted out one at a time. There were over 1,000 fish in there,” assistant harbormaster Rick Smith said. The catch included many undersized fish, including black sea bass, tautog and scup. “Pretty much, if it bit the hook, they took it,” Smith added.
The five men on the boat had no licenses or permits and had taken numbers of fish that far eclipsed the legal limit with many of them under the legal size and they were issued $51,000 in civil fines.
Recently appointed harbormaster Bill Chase said that this operation was not a singular event, but rather just the tip of the iceberg. “My sense, after all this happened, was that there’s probably more to the story. This was a coordinated large operation that has roots and tentacles in other states,” he said. Chase added that the bust is exactly why he pushed for tighter coordination with environmental police. “It validates the cooperation between a small town department like ours and a state agency that’s charged with environmental enforcement,” he said.
Officials said the bust proves those partnerships are working. “This was an example of our town being taken advantage of, and we’re not going to settle for that,” Carter said.
