For Release: August 12, 1998

Contact: Steven Hall 222-2284

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management announced today the imposition of the largest criminal penalty ever against a commercial fisherman in Rhode Island.

At his arraignment in Newport's Second Division District Court Tuesday, August 11, on charges of selling untagged and undersized striped bass, Alan W. Wheeler, 51, a fish trap operator residing on Bristol Ferry Road, Portsmouth, DEM's Division of Enforcement reached a settlement with him that calls for a $10,000 fine and a one-year suspension of Wheeler's commercial fishing license.

DEM'S Division of Enforcement was alerted by an anonymous tip that untagged and undersized stripers were being sold off the dock of the Point Trap Fish Company, owned by Wheeler, at Sakonnet Point. Six DEM environmental police officers, posing as tourists in a covert operation that lasted from July 14 to July 26, watched - and filmed - Wheeler pack 202 untagged striped bass in crates at the fish company and deliver them into a Canadian-bound truck. Forty-seven of the bass were also undersized. (One environmental police officer actually purchased two untagged, undersized striped bass from Wheeler during the operation.)

Wheeler was arrested on scene July 26.