A Southeast salmon fisherman forfeited his boat to the state of Alaska last week after being found guilty of fishing 65 miles into closed waters, according to a Wednesday release by the Department of Law.
Curtis Demmert was forced to hand over his 58-foot commercial salmon seine boat, the Tlingit Lady, last week after being found guilty of what’s known as a ‘creek robbery’: Demmert netted fish from the mouth of a salmon stream, then shut off his vessel’s lights and brought his catch to market, according to reports made to Alaska State Troopers.
Coco Harbor, the Prince of Wales Island area where prosecutors say Demmert made his illegal catch, has been closed to fishing for nearly 30 years. It’s home to several salmon spawning streams.
Assistant Attorney General Aaron Peterson argued that Demmert took a “calculated risk” in pursuit of “significant monetary gain” when he chose to fish in illegal waters.
Instead of making Demmert rich, his actions “put a salmon stream in peril,” Peterson said.
“Other commercial fishermen and the general public must know that if a fisherman commits an offense this egregious, the vessels and instrumentalities used in aid of the violation will be lost to them,” Peterson said when arguing that Demmert should be forced to forfeit the Tlingit Lady.
Demmert’s attorney, Sitka-based James McGowan, did not immediately return messages the Empire left on his phone Wednesday.
After allegedly witnessing the Tlingit Lady make a set at Coco Harber on Sept. 13, 2017, a caller reported the vessel to Alaska State Troopers. The caller called back some hours later that day, claiming that Demmert and his crew made an additional set in the closed area. After that, the vessel shut its lights off in an apparent attempt to mask where it had been fishing.
The next morning, the Tlingit Lady offloaded 23,159 pounds of salmon to a salmon tender vessel. Demmert reported on his fish ticket that the fish came from open waters near Mclean Arm, about 65 miles from Coco Harbor. The average catch for fishermen at Mclean Arm that week was 9,000 pounds.
Demmert pleaded guilty and was sentenced to multiple misdemeanors for fishing in closed waters, fishing too close to a salmon spawning stream and lying on a commercial fishing ticket. He was fined $32,728.79, sentenced to 180 days of suspended jail time and was required to forfeit $17,728.79 from the illegally-caught salmon, the Tlingit Lady, its seine skiff, nets and everything aboard both vessels to the state of Alaska.
Demmert also holds a southern Southeast spawn on kelp herring permit, according to the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. Ten other persons with the last name Demmert are listed as Southeast seine permit holders, though it’s unclear whether any or all are related.
It’s rare for the state of Alaska to seize a fishing boat as punishment for fishing violations, the Department of Law’s Office of Special Prosecution’s Andrew Peterson said in a Wednesday phone interview.
“There is a history of it happening in real egregious cases,” he said.
• Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @KevinGullufsen.
