Four men were seen on May 23 near the town of Perrysburg, tossing nets into Cattaraugus Creek, one of the most popular and productive freshwater fishing destinations in New York.
After getting a tip, two New York State Department of Environmental Conservation police officers (ECOs) observed the four men coming out of Cattaraugus gorge, each struggling to carry large, waterproof backpacks.
After searching the backpacks, ECOs found a total of 71 unlawfully taken fish, including 21 trophy-sized smallmouth bass, a brown trout, suckers, and carp.
ECOs issued the netters 13 tickets for charges including taking fish by means other than angling, taking fish out of season, and unlawfully possessing protected fish.
The following reports are excerpted from DEC:
This baby opossum was found in a Nassau County yard and eventually handed over to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
On May 21, a Nassau County resident found an abandoned juvenile opossum, or joey,’ in their backyard and asked for help from a wildlife rehabilitator via social media. A nearby licensed DEC rehabilitator responded to the request but when they went to get the joey, it was gone. Someone else got it first, and that person didn’t have a rehab license. An ECO got involved when the unlicensed rehabber ignored multiple requests to return the joey. Using chatlogs the ECO tracked the person to their home and ticketed them for illegal possession of protected wildlife. The joey was given to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator where it is expected to make a full recovery.
On May 12, DEC investigators arrested an Allegany County man for stealing trees in the town of Wirt. The defendant had hired two loggers under false pretenses to cut and remove more than 40 trees on someone else’s property. The trees are valued at approximately $17,000. The defendant will answer charges of grand larceny, criminal mischief, unlawful removal of trees, and criminal trespass in the Town of Wirt Court.
An ECO keeps an eye on a runway boat in the Niagara River in Tonawanda. The boat lost power and began drifting downstream, but ECOs helped coordinate a rescue by the Coast Guard.
On May 22, a boater on the Niagara River in Tonawanda lost power and began drifting downstream. Two ECOs patrolling near the river on ATVs drove to a nearby marina to help coordinate the rescue of the runaway boat and its operator. They alerted the Coast Guard station in Buffalo and called the boater, talking him through the process of setting his anchor properly. A Coast Guard vessel arrived and towed the disabled boat safely to shore and the ECOs resumed their patrol.
On May 22, a hen mallard and her seven ducklings got stuck inside a courtyard of a building in Suffolk County. Two ECOs tried to capture the hen, but she flew out of the courtyard leaving the ducklings behind. The ECOs gathered up the baby birds and captured the hen when she returned for them. Mother mallard and her ducklings were released to a nearby lake.
A series of fishing compliance checks in Suffolk County resulted in anglers ticketed for taking too many fish and undersized fish. A Greenport angler fileting what he claimed were porgy was ticketed for possessing over-the-limit and undersized weakfish; a Southampton angler got caught trying to hide an undersized striped bass behind a guardrail; and a boat captain in Southold was ticketed for catching 143 porgy, well over the daily limit of 30 per person.
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Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors for The Post-Standard, syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at sfeatherstone@syracuse.com or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow along with all of our outdoors content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.