CAMBRIDGE,
Massachusetts (Reuters) - A Maine lobsterman and his son pleaded
not guilty on Monday to illegally possessing more than 400 protected
egg-bearing female lobsters and face a possible $190,000
fine, authorities said.
Marine
patrol officers discovered the lobsters, marked with a v-shaped notch in their
tails or mutilated to remove the notch, during an inspection last year of a
boat owned by Ricky Curtis, the state Department of Marine
Resources said in a statement.
Maine
requires lobstermen to notch the tails of egg-bearing female lobsters before
returning them to the ocean as a conservation measure. The lobsters may then
reproduce several more times.
"We
consider this a very serious crime," Colonel Joseph Fessenden, Marine
Patrol chief, said in the statement.
"The
illegal taking of any lobsters negatively affects the resource and is a direct
theft from those lobstermen who abide by the laws every day that they
fish," Fessenden said.
Ricky
Curtis, 48, and his son Todd Curtis, 29, entered a not guilty plea through
the mail at Knox County District Court in Rockland, Maine, a
court clerk said.
They
face a fine of more than $190,000 if they are convicted of the crime, the
statement from wildlife authorities said.
Their
attorney, Philip Cohen, declined to comment on the charges.
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