Italian fishermen go home empty-handed

PALMER -- Four Italian men who admitted they got carried away during a fishing outing on the Talachulitna River last week each paid a $2,000 fine on their way back to Italy.

Apparently, Adriano Ambrosi, 62, Alexander Florian, 48, Walter Andergasse, 46, and Herbert Quirco, 55, were floating down the Talachulitna Saturday, delighting in the 16 kings that took their bait. They told Magistrate David Zwink they knew it was against the law, but the fishing was so good they couldn't help themselves.

When they flew back to Anchorage and landed at Lake Hood in Spenard, Fish and Wildlife officials served a search warrant and discovered 35 salmon on board. Each fishermen was allowed only two kings each.

The men's passports were confiscated, and all their personal gear, along with the fish, which the men said they had salted down and spiced for preserving to take back to Italy.

The four men didn't end up in jail because their guide, Reinhold Schrette, paid $300 bail for each of them. The guide was not implicated in the incident because the Italians were camping their way down the river and the guide was not with them.

The case was immediately brought to court even though it was a weekend, because the Italians needed to catch planes out of the country.

"It was extremely unusual the way the case worked out. I was impressed," said assistant District Attorney Jack Smith, called in Saturday morning to prosecute the case.

Magistrate David Zwink heard the case that morning although Palmer District Court is normally closed on the weekend except for arraignments. Schrette translated for the men using German, which all of them understood as more common to each than English. Schrette has offices in Austria and in Anchorage, a company called the Alaska Fishing Club.

"The guide wasn't with them when they were catching the fish," Smith said. "The men had fishing regulations with them, and the limits were highlighted with a pen."

Smith said the men declined a lawyer. Zwink pressed them to understand the rights they were waiving, but the men said they knew catching over the limit was wrong and they wanted to enter a guilty plea, Smith said.

Zwink fined each man $2,000, and they had to forfeit the fish and their fishing equipment. Schrette paid the total amount for them, and they are to reimburse him from funds when they get back to Italy.

"It normally doesn't happen this quickly," Smith said, referring to the stages of charges, arraignments, entering pleas and sentencing, which normally takes months. In this case, all that was completed in one day.

"Normally people want to talk to a lawyer and see what their options are," Smith said. "These men were flying back shortly, and they wanted to take responsibility. They said, 'We got caught. We were carried away. The fishing was great.'"