Posted by sltwtrdvr on January 26, 2004 at 16:35:14:
In Reply to: Zero Tolerance for Poaching posted by Ken Kurtis on January 26, 2004 at 12:08:30:
As a hunter, I have at times been confronted by people questioning my take. A few times these people did not even know the regulations or the type of fish that was on my stringer/in my bag, yet these people were giving me crap about what was or was not in season and what the limits were. I agree that enforcing the laws needs to be done, but I also think that people have to use some common sense when analyzing these situations.
Keep in mind that while rod and reel fishing, game can be brought aboard and released if it does not meet the necessary requirements. This has nothing to do whether the game is alive or not,(personally, I feel that if you caught it, it should go against your quota, period).
I have seen people bring up fish/lobster that were just short. I have also seen people that have brought up fish/lobster that were nowhere near close to being legal, which tells me that they either don't know the laws or don't care. More often though, I have seen divers taking what they shouldn't, or to many, and get out of the water on to a private boat and high tail it out of the area so that you can't get their ID numbers. In my opinion these are the real problem. All of the empty Abalone shells around Catalina Island Coves did not come from divers on the local commercial dive charters.
Errors can be made underwater and can be corrected at the surface and in some cases on board a boat. As commercial dive boats go, I believe that just having other divers/DM's/crew on board do great work in stopping most errors from continuing. I believe that most hunters follow the rules and want the rules in place to protect their sport. There are just some BONEHEADS that really need to be taken care of.
I have know problem with people checking my take, provided I am told ahead of time and being present, but I have also been told by other hunters that it would create problems if someone were to do this. Use common sense when dealing with situations like these, or bigger problems could occur.
Just a couple of my thoughts.