Washington fishing outfit pleads guilty to illegal fishing charges in Alaska

That’s a lot of lingcod: 11,000 pounds worth caught illegally in the Gulf of Alaska by a Washington-based group, Fisherman’s Finest LLC. The Alaska State Troopers Wildlife Division found that the company had retained 11,000 pounds of a total 56,000 pounds of fish caught in 2010 and 2011. But the intent was not deemed to be malicious, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Here are the nut graphs of the Daily News story:

In July 2010 and 2011, investigators said, the F/V US Intrepid harvested more than 56,000 pounds of lingcod in the eastern Gulf of Alaska, which is state water. At the time, the company was operating under federal regulations as a test rockfish fishery, said Sgt. Brent Johnson, the investigating officer on the case.

The majority of the lingcod was released, but 11,000 pounds was retained and sold commercially, troopers said. Under federal guidelines, such activity was legal, but the state retains management control of that particular species, Johnson said.