Open eyes to shady dealings

I’m finding as I get older the time just seems to fly by, even on the rare occasions when it drags, like sitting in the dentist’s chair listening to the drill and smelling the burning bone or lying motionless on a too-small table for 30 minutes or more while the MRI machine is clanking, grinding and buzzing an inch from my face. Tomorrow wraps up another year that actually only started about four months ago — or so it seems!

I’d like to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year with the hope that all your fishing trips produce whoppers (fish or stories, doesn’t really matter which) and your hunting trips fill your freezers (or mine if you feel generous).

Speaking of that, if you are planning to apply for any drawing permit hunts for the fall 2012 and the spring 2013, you only have until tomorrow at 5 p.m. to submit your online application to Fish and Game. If you have questions, call the Palmer office at 746-6300 today before end of business to get an answer.

On a more serious note, I wrote an article for the paper a couple of weeks ago suggesting that the sport fish guide licensing process needs to be overhauled to allow for the revocation of a guide’s license in the event that person is convicted of a serious Fish and Game violation or is a repeat offender in violating the more minor Fish and Game regulations. Right now, no statute or regulation mandates the loss of a sport fish guide license in case of a violation conviction, no matter how many times or how serious the violation.

Let me give you a little behind the scenes on how that article came about. A reader had emailed the paper asking if the news staff intended to do a follow-up story on a guide who was cited this past fishing season on multiple counts of a Class A misdemeanor Fish and Game violation. The paper had published a short article in August about the original citation. That first article contained information that the particular guide had been convicted in 2006 of some other Fish and Game violations involving a hefty fine and jail time, both of which were largely suspended. The inquiring email stated that the trial for the current charges was scheduled for early December.

I was asked to look into the situation and develop a story. I found out that the trial was rescheduled into early January 2012, so no resolution of the current charges would be immediately available. I also found out from public court records that the particular individual involved had several other Fish and Game convictions from previous years, as well as other relatively minor traffic convictions and a DUI conviction on his record.

When I asked folks involved in law enforcement and in the sport fish guide license issuing program if these convictions could result in the guide losing his license, I was told that would not happen for lack of a statute or regulation providing that authority to the issuing agency.

I used this information, minus the non-Fish and Game violation convictions, in the article to essentially set the stage to illustrate why the sport fish guide licensing process needed revision.

This particular individual has held a guide’s license for years and, short of a judge ordering revocation as part of sentencing for a conviction, cannot be denied a new license for the next year if he applies and meets the general criteria and provides the required paperwork.

There were several comments added to the story by readers, all of which openly called for this person’s license revocation and agreeing that the process needs to be tightened up to prevent future abuses of this sort. Further information has come to light since that article was published that this same individual was convicted of multiple federal felonies in another state in past years as well. These are the facts as available through public court records.

A couple of other things are simmering on the back burner related to this story. I believe a bill has been introduced in the Legislature to form a sport fish guide services board analogous to the hunting guide services board that already exists.

If established, this services board could have regulatory authority to revoke licenses for ethical reasons, just as the hunting guide board currently has.

Since this board would probably be established within the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, where the hunting guide services board currently is placed, its regulatory authority over sport fish guides could be significant if set up appropriately.

I also inquired if the Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) had the authority to revoke a sportsfish guide license for cause. I haven’t gotten an answer to that question yet, but I would suspect the BOF does not have that level of authority.

They exist to regulate methods and means, seasons, and generally to allocate the harvestable surplus portion of a fishery — not decide under what conditions user licenses can be issued or retained.

The creation of a sport fish guide services board would be a step in the right direction.

However, I still think a legislative statute specifying why and for how long a sport fish guide license can be revoked for violation convictions would be a valuable tool in overseeing the sport fish guide industry. I would think the ethical and honest sport fish guides and their representative organizations would openly support such a statute as well.

We all tell jokes about used car salesmen and their supposedly shady dealings. Would the sport fishing guides want the same stereotype in the public eye? I would think not! Appropriate laws and service boards with oversight of that industry would dispel any stereotype of shady dealings, at least in my mind!

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.