Tag Archives: Maryland Department of the Environment
Susquehanna River Debris Has Crabbers Concerned After Heavy Rains
The slew of debris from as far as upstate New York is now hitting our region after officials were forced to open gates on the Conowingo Dam in the Susquehanna River. This is due to the rain that pounded the area last week. For Blair Baltus, he’s bearing the brunt of that debris. “When that flood water came down, it killed most of the crabs that were in the pots.” President of the Baltimore Watermens Association, Baltus says these months are supposed to be the peak of crab catching season. “With these gates opening up it pretty much flushed away everything we had.” Baltus said. >click to read<11:07
St. Mary’s Watermen: One License Revoked, Another Charged with Fraud
A St. Mary’s County man had his commercial oyster license revoked after he was convicted last Thursday of harvesting oysters from polluted waters. Andrew Phillip Nelson, 20, of Hollywood, was charged in May with catching oysters from St. Inigoes Creek off the St. Mary’s River, an area closed to harvesting by the Maryland Department of the Environment because of pollution. A St. Mary’s County waterman has been criminally charged with running a commercial fishing fraud scheme, the Maryland Natural Resources Police reported. Robert Maurice Lumpkins, 62, of Piney Point, was charged Friday with perjury, false entry in a public record and theft between $10,000 and $100,000 for illegally obtaining the striped bass allocation of an ailing waterman and then allowing an employee to temporarily use the allocation. Read the rest here 15:41
