A three-year fish poaching investigation conducted by undercover agents with the Service and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency netted a total of $28,000 in fines and 13 years of probation for five men. The men were convicted of state misdemeanor overfishing charges and misdemeanor violations of the federal Lacey Act, which prohibits importing, exporting, transporting, selling, or possessing fish, wildlife or plants taken in violation of any other law.

One of the men also was sentenced either to pay a fine or to perform community service on a national wildlife refuge or at a national fish hatchery.

The men were charged with overfishing Tennessee's daily limit of two striped bass per person and violating the Lacey Act by transporting these egg-laden fish across state lines to a Mississippi private hatchery. Once the offspring had hatched, they would have been sold overseas where striped bass are valuable as food and sport fish.

According to the indictment, Robert Giachelli and Larry Lesinger of Mississippi Fisheries Company hired Jeffrey Buehler, Timothy Farmer, and Michael Massengill to catch fish with assistance from a sixth man, John Livingston. Between April 19 and April 25, each man caught between four and six fish each day, exceeding the state limit of two fish per day.

This overfishing constituted a misdemeanor punishable with up to a $500 fine and 6 months in jail. Violations of the Lacey Act are punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and up to 1 year in prison.

In May, a U.S. District Court judge in Jackson, Tennessee, sentenced three of the six men to probation, house arrest and fines. One man was given 2 years of probation with fines, and another was sentenced to 5 years probation with no hunting or fishing allowed and 4 months of house arrest. He also must pay $15,000 restitution to Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Another violator received 2 years probation with no hunting or fishing allowed and was ordered to pay $1,000 restitution to the state wildlife resources agency or perform 200 hours community service on a national wildlife refuge or national fish hatchery.

Mike Elkins, senior resident agent for the Service in Nashville, said that this case would likely have a significant deterrent effect on others in the aquaculture industry who might be planning to illegally catch fish and sell the hatchlings.

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fish & Wildlife News July/August 1998