THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501190011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
I'm a commercial fisherman out of Tangier Island. On Dec. 28, about 25 to 30 crab-dredge boats were working on the Maryland/Virginia line. A friend and I were working in an area we thought was Virginia. We were issued tickets because we were told by Maryland Resources Police that we were dredging in Maryland.
There are no markings or buoys defining the Maryland/Virginia line. Five law officers, three from Virginia and two from Maryland, could not confirm where the line was. How am I supposed to know where the line is if they who are responsible for upholding the law do not know where the boundary lies?
I may have been in Maryland, but who knows? It's for sure that had I thought I was in Maryland, when I saw the Virginia marine police boats coming I would have returned to Virginia waters as fast as possible.
My friend and I received tickets for $400. We didn't get a warning; the police officers assumed we new where the Maryland/Virginia boundary was, yet they could not properly identify any markings that would place us in Maryland.
I'm trying to make a living. It seems to me that if the marine police of Virginia and Maryland are so interested in keeping dredge boats from straying into each other's waters, a buoy should be placed on the line letting watermen know exactly where they are dredging.
It's time these law-enforcement officers used a little common sense when it comes to issuing tickets to commercial fishermen. We are trying to survive; all the while new laws are being made. It's time watermen got the respect due them instead of the hassling we get from the marine police.
CHUCK PRUITT
Tangier, Jan. 3, 1995 by CNB