Port Clinton Commercial Fishing Company guilty of Felony Charges

[GLF]

Fines of $160,000 the latest in the sting of rogue harvesting of Lake Erie gold

COLUMBUS, OH - A Port Clinton commercial fishing company and its owners, Richard Stinson and Orville (Lee) Stinson, were ordered to pay $160,000 for their part in a racketeering ring that illegally netted thousands of pounds of yellow perch from Lake Erie, according to the Ohio DNR, Division of Wildlife.

"We're halfway home," said Kevin Ramsey, head of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Lake Erie enforcement unit. "We expect to bring more cases within the next month or two." The guilty pleas concluded a two-year investigation by Ramsey and his team that started in 2002 and resulted in the indictments of five fishing companies and 14 commercial fishermen on racketeering, theft and money laundering charges.

Ramsey expects an even bigger Lake Erie poaching case to be presented to the Grand jury later this year.

Port Clinton Fisheries, Inc. Wholesalers entered a guilty plea in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to charges of engaging in corrupt activity a felony of the first degree and theft a felony of third degree. Judge Brian Corrigan subsequently ordered the company to pay a $160,000 in fines and restitution to the state for the stolen fish. The judge placed the company under sanction for five years and ordered it to donate 250 lbs of yellow perch to a community food bank.

Richard Stinson was found guilty of theft, a misdemeanor of the first degree; Orville Stinson was found guilty of theft, a misdemeanor of the first degree. This latest case and the pattern of corrupt activity demonstrated by other convicted commercial fishing operations has resulted in proposed new regulations by the Division of Wildlife that will tighten the rules on the industry.

With all this illegal commercial harvest activity going on in Lake Erie by both Ohio and Ontario commercials, the buyout of the netters is taking center stage, and furious angling groups are banding together to effect a buyout. Even if possible it will take years, but it won’t deter determined these conservationists seeing their beloved resource manipulated and stolen by rogue commercials.