Home Cars Jobs Real Estate Directory Classifieds Advertise Subscribe Front page Archive PUBLIC RECORD more>> ShareThis • Comment • Get Email Alerts! AP VIDEO more>> Find Us On Facebook Natural Resources Police fight poaching with all-night stakeouts By KERRY DA VIS, Capital News Serv ice Published 03/05/11 EASTERN SHORE -- It's just after 12:30 a.m. on a recent weeknight and Natural Resources Police Cpl. Roy Rafter, 48, is driving on the Eastern Shore to a stakeout near an oyster bed that he's heard is being illegally raided at night. The plan is for Officer Drew Wilson to drive an unmarked vehicle and drop off Rafter within view of the oyster sanctuary. They don't use their regular police trucks for fear of being spotted in small communities where they're not terribly popular with some folks. It's about 30 degrees out. They wear warm, dark clothing. They bring extra hats, gloves and Rafter's specialty - a huge thermos of hot chocolate that holds about half a gallon. Natural Resources Police officers like Wilson and Rafter are up against staggering odds. The force is down to an allocation of 247 from 440 in 1990. Officers responded to 20,394 service calls in 2010, up nearly 39 percent from 2001. They are responsible for roughly 17,000 miles of shoreline, including tributaries. This year's fishing season has seen the largest rockfish poaching bust in more than 20 years. It was Rafter's own homemade grappling hook that caught the first net on Feb. 1 near Kent Island. Officers found 13 tons of illegally caught fish over the next few weeks, sometimes working 18-hour days to haul in nets. An Early Morning On the Water 12:54 a.m. The officers should be on their way to the stakeout. Instead, they are standing in a parking lot, plugging latitude and longitude coordinates into a handheld GPS. A radio-controlled perimeter around an oyster sanctuary near the Bay Bridge has sent out an alert and a quick check shows two boats driving through the sanctuary. The alert went out from the Maritime Law Enforcement Information Network, a system of radar and cameras set up in four locations around the Chesapeake Bay and paid for by a Homeland Security Grant. The two officers change plans, driving instead to the Department of Natural Resources facility on Kent Island, where the boat Rafter usually uses is moored. Rafter and Wilson are the only officers patrolling this half of the Chesapeake Bay tonight. EVENTS CALENDAR more>> Mar 26 - Saving Second Base Bar-Crawl/Fundraiser Mar 26 - Annapolis Symphony Concert - To Good Health Mar 27 - Wheat Beer Class at Punk's Backyard Grill Mar 27 - Longaberger Basket Bingo Fundraiser for Autism Mar 27 - Free Community Hymn Sing Enter Keywords Select Advertise Select Category Click ad below for more information Current Weather 43°F HometownAnnapolis.com Like 2,031 Saturday , March 26, 2011 • Email This News Communities Sports Voices Obituaries Multimedia Entertainment Lifestyle Contact Us Marketplace Natura l Re sources Poli ce fight po ac hi ng wit h al l- ni ght st akeout s... ht tp:/ /www .homet ownannapol is .c om/news/ for/ 2011/03/0 5- 02/f ... 1 of 5 3/26/11 12:08 AM
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8/6/2019 Searching for Poachers by the light of the moon
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Natural Resources Police fightpoaching with all-night stakeoutsBy KERRY DAVIS, Capital News Serv ice
Published 03/05/11
EASTERN SHORE -- It's just after 12:30 a.m. on a recent weeknight and Natural
Resources Police Cpl. Roy Rafter, 48, is driving on the Eastern Shore to a stakeout near
an oyster bed that he's heard is being illegally raided at night.
The plan is for Officer Drew Wilson todrive an unmarked vehicle and drop off
Rafter within view of the oyster sanctuary.
They don't use their regular police trucks
for fear of being spotted in small
communities where they're not terribly
popular with some folks.
It's about 30 degrees out.
They wear warm, dark clothing. They bring
extra hats, gloves and Rafter's specialty -
a huge thermos of hot chocolate that
holds about half a gallon.
Natural Resources Police officers like Wilson and Rafter are up against staggering odds.The force is down to an allocation of 247 from 440 in 1990. Officers responded to 20,394
service calls in 2010, up nearly 39 percent from 2001. They are responsible for roughly
17,000 miles of shoreline, including tributaries.
This year's fishing season has seen the largest rockfish poaching bust in more than 20
years. It was Rafter's own homemade grappling hook that caught the first net on Feb. 1
near Kent Island. Officers found 13 tons of illegally caught fish over the next few weeks,
sometimes working 18-hour days to haul in nets.
An Early Morning On the Water
12:54 a.m. The officers should be on their way to the stakeout. Instead, they are standing
in a parking lot, plugging latitude and longitude coordinates into a handheld GPS.
A radio-controlled perimeter around an oyster sanctuary near the Bay Bridge has sent out
an alert and a quick check shows two boats driving through the sanctuary.
The alert went out from the Maritime Law Enforcement Information Network, a system of
radar and cameras set up in four locations around the Chesapeake Bay and paid for by a
Homeland Security Grant.
The two officers change plans, driving instead to the Department of Natural Resources
facility on Kent Island, where the boat Rafter usually uses is moored.
Rafter and Wilson are the only officers patrolling this half of the Chesapeake Bay tonight.
EVENTS CALENDAR more>>
Mar 26 - Saving Second BaseBar-Crawl/Fundraiser
Mar 26 - Annapolis Symphony Concert - ToGood Health
Mar 27 - Wheat Beer Class at Punk'sBackyard Grill
Mar 27 - Longaberger Basket BingoFundraiser for Autism
Mar 27 - Free Community Hymn Sing
Enter Keywords
Select Advertise
Select Category
Click ad below for more information
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Theft of fish - 2011-03-09 07:44:07
Mr.Harrell,I agree Theft is theft and the Truth is still the truth.Not all watermen are thieves,and youshould be careful of such reckless generalizations.Mr.Wood,I am not a waterman. I am a concerned
citizen with nearly 20 years of reading,interviewing,going over scientific reports,meetings,research
papers and hands on experience.What have you done to learn about this industry?I am concerned
about the misleading articles placed in newspapers that do not put the complete story out for
readers to form an educated opinion. You have been drinking the Kool Aid for so long that you no
longer care to dig deeper than what you read in the papers and see on TV. Didn't your parents
teach you not to believe everything you read?
Mr.Trampolini,How much is your job worth?$4,000.00?How much does your job contribute to the
community?How many jobs depend on your work?When you are ready to talk about accountability
look first to the sportsfishermen,who took 50,000 pounds of rockfish over their limit last year. The
12 tons taken by recent illegal use of net was barely 12% of the annual commercial quota. That
12tons was removed from this year's quota.Those men who set that net stole from honest
watermen.The 25 tons taken by sportfishermen was not taken into account for their quota this
year. Who stole fish from who?Whose licenses need to be bought out?
Marc Castelli - Chestertown, MD - Karma: Neutral
This is almost like - 2011-03-08 12:05:16
a stakeout of drug dealers, only difference is its thieving waterman being protected by some in thecommunity. no sympathy for thieves.
charles harrell - annapolis, md - Karma: Excellent
joe - 2011-03-08 10:53:10
Sounds like you should look for a new "job". Is anyone forcing you to be a waterman?
Dixon Wood - Edgewater, MD - Karma: Neutral
NPR - 2011-03-07 15:12:01
Where were those brave NRP police when the DNR mandated (with no substitution) that the
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Natural Resources Police fight poaching with all-night stakeouts... http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/for/2011/03/05-0
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8/6/2019 Searching for Poachers by the light of the moon