Tag Archives: poaching rockfish

On Tilghman Island, law-breaking watermen defended

On a midwinter afternoon, William “Billy” J. Lednum steered the Kristin Marie into the Knapps Narrows, This was the 42-year-old waterman’s last trip before heading to prison — and perhaps the last rockfish haul of his life. Lednum, known around Tilghman Island as “Billy,” is now Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate No. 57529-037 at Fort Dix, N.J. On insular Tilghman — a 2.7-square-mile island with fewer than 800 residents — many are outraged by Lednum’s fall. Not because of his crime: poaching rockfish in violation of state and federal law. Read the rest here 12:13