On January 10 the Department of Law reported a Prince of Wales fisherman had been sentenced for a number of misdemeanor counts related to fishing violations.
Commercial salmon seine captain Curtis Demmert was sentenced to multiple misdemeanor counts, including commercial fishing in closed waters, fishing too close to a salmon spawning stream and falsifying his commercial fish ticket.
On September 13, 2017 Alaska Wildlife Troopers had received a report that the F/V Tlingit Lady, a 58-foot commercial seine vessel captained by Demmert, had been seining for salmon at the head of Coco Harbor, roughly 65 miles into closed waters. Coco Harbor is home to several salmon spawning streams and has been closed to commercial fishing for nearly 30 years. Later that evening the caller reported again that F/V Tlingit Lady was making an additional set in Coco Harbor. After the final set the vessel blacked out its lights and left Coco Harbor in the dark.
On the morning of September 14, Demmert had offloaded 23,159 pounds of salmon to a commercial tender vessel. Demmert claimed the fish were caught on September 13 in open water near Mclean Arm, some 65 miles from Coco Harbor. The average catch for seiners fishing in the open area was 9,000 pounds. Based on the distance into closed water and the fact that Demmert was fishing near a salmon spawning stream, an illegal practice known as “creek robbing,” the Wildlife Troopers seized the F/V Tlingit Lady and everything on it, including the skiff and seine nets.
On December 19 Demmert pleaded guilty to Commercial Fishing During Closed Period, Commercial Fishing in Closed Waters, False Information on an ADF&G Fish Ticket, and Unlawful Possession of Fish. On January 10 the defendant was sentenced by the court in Prince of Wales.
The state’s prosecutor argued Demmert had taken a calculated risk when he fished far into closed waters, for potentially significant monetary gain while putting a salmon run in peril. The prosecutor stated that “without vigorous enforcement of the regulations, fish in Alaska could be wiped out, and the employment, sport, subsistence, and traditions of Alaskans gone with them.”
The court imposed a sentence including a $32,728.79 fine, 180 days of suspended jail time, forfeit $17,728.79 from the illegally caught salmon and forfeit the F/V Tlingit Lady, the seine skiff, seine nets, and everything aboard the vessel to the State of Alaska.
In arguing for forfeiture of the fishing vessel the prosecutor stated “other commercial fishermen and the general public must know that if a fisherman commits an offense this egregious, the vessels and instrumentalities used in aid of the violation will be lost to them.”
The case was investigated by the Alaska Wildlife Troopers in Southeast Alaska. The case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Aaron Peterson of the Alaska Department of Law, Office of Special Prosecutions.
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