From the Escanaba Daily Press:
ESCANABA – Sentences will be handed down within the next six weeks for two men arrested in connection with illegal gill netting on Big Bay de Noc earlier this month, according to Delta County District Court officials.
Kerry Todd Johnson, 27, Cooks, and Daryl John Tatrow, 48, Garden, each pleaded no contest to a charge of using illegal fishing devices. The misdemeanor carries a maximum punishment of 90 days in jail, $1,000 fine, and revocation of one’s fishing license for three years.
Tatrow, who appeared in district court Wednesday, also pleaded no contest to one count of attempted assaulting/resisting/obstructing a law enforcement officer for fleeing during his arrest. The charge carries a maximum sentencing of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced in district court on Dec. 21. Tatrow will be sentenced on Jan. 4.
A third man arrested in connection with the alleged illegal gill-netting operation, will be charged in the Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians Tribal Court for subsistence fishing without a license, according to officials from the Department of Natural Resources. His name was unavailable.
The three men were arrested by DNR officers on Nov. 2. Items confiscated during the arrest included 1,100 pounds of whitefish, burbot and walleye. Wholesale value of the whitefish was estimated at $860.
Other items confiscated were 1,200 feet of gill net, a 14-foot boat with a motor and trailer, plastic fish boxes, fishing apparel, and a flashlight, according to Cpl. Shannon VanPatten, an officer with the DNR’s Commercial Fish Enforcement Unit.
The DNR is seeking to keep the above items and receive $5,552 in restitution in a condemnation hearing on Jan. 4, she said.
VanPatten had no information on the third suspect arrested in connection with the illegal gill netting. She also had no new information on the six suspects arrested after an investigation revealed an unusually high amount of walleye was being sold in the wholesale fish market.
Five of the suspects are members of the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa Tribe and the sixth man is from Delta County. No charges have been officially authorized against the six men whose names are unavailable.
VanPatten initially brought attention to the illegal commercial fishing issue late last fall. While reviewing commercial fisheries records, she noticed an unusually high amount of walleye was sold in the wholesale commercial fish market during the past few winters.
Following an intensive investigation, conservation officers seized 265 pounds of fish illegally harvested from the bay and 1,200 feet in gill nets in late February.
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