TN men ordered to pay $10K for illegally harvesting fish in MS
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — Two Tennessee men have been ordered to pay a total of $10,550 in fines and restitution for the illegal harvest of fish from a lake in Mississippi, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
According to court documents, 50-year-old Jian Wu Huang and 44-year-old Qiu M Huang, both from Lakeland, Tennessee, pled guilty to one count of taking more than the daily bag limit of crappie from the Enid Lake Spillway earlier this year.
The men allegedly caught 171 crappie, 141 more fish than the allowed creel limit of 15 each, with over-sized hooks and in excess of the maximum number of hooks allowed per line.
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Monday, a judge ordered each man to pay a $1,000 fine along with restitution of $4,275 to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.
They were also put on probation for a year, prohibiting them from fishing anywhere in the world, and banned from all Corps of Engineers property in the Northern District of Mississippi.
“We are committed to working collaboratively with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats. The illegal take and interstate transport of a state trust species is a violation of federal law and will be investigated and prosecuted. We will continue to work closely with our state partners to conduct these criminal investigations,” said U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Stephen Clark.
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