A commercial fisherman and member of the Mashpee Wampanoag -Stam, who had a number of wild oysters he chose from a pond seized by the state, lost his attraction.
Cheenulka Pocknett went to Green Pond in Falmouth on Wednesday 4 December 2019 and “took a large number of wild oysters,” said Massachusetts Appeals Court. Unfortunately for him, the pond was closed for commercial fishing on Wednesday, such as for Sunday, Monday and Friday.
Pocknett kept a number of oysters for themselves and friends and family, as allowed by tribal exemption laws. But he wore another 1600 from the oysters, marked the containers with his division of license number of marine fishing and sold them to a Harwich-based shellfish wholesaler called Big Rock Oysters.
The Falmouth Harbormaster somehow discovered what was going on and reported the illegal Shellfishing in Green Pond to a state environmental police officer, who in turn went to Big Rock -Oosters and inspected the oyster containers. He said that the company should not have accepted the oysters, but because they were already there, he said they had to sell them, but that the state would take the proceeds, which turned out to be $ 480. The officer then gave Pocknett a warning for illegal Shellfishing.
That is the start of a strange case that is known as “Commonwealth vs. One (1) check in the amount of $ 480 for 1,600 pieces Wilders (Crassostrea Virginica)” finally ended at a hearing of the profession chaired by Justice Lisa F. Edmonds.
Crassostrea Virginica is the scientific name for the Eastern or Atlantic oyster, common on the east coast.
Pocknett had various arguments against the seizure and the forfeiture.
First, he said that because the officer only issued a warning and did not suspend his commercial fishing permit or canceled that the attack was not legal.
But Judge Edmonds did not make much of that argument: “Nothing in that series of events could reasonably have Pocknett could have believed that the attack would be undone.”
Then there is the more interesting argument that he acted as an Indian who exerts his right to fish for food and not as a commercial fisherman.
Again, Edmonds was not convinced: the officer only seized the oysters that Pocknett had served, applied with his commercial license number and sold to a wholesaler, not the oysters Pocknett “Saved for personal consumption or to share with his friends and family.”
“As a recognized wholesaler, Big Rock Oysters was obliged to obtain the name of the Visser and the DMF number from every person sold it,” wrote Edmonds. “In short, it was only by acting as a commercial fisherman that Pocknett was able to sell the oysters in question to Big Rock -Oosters.”
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