Two fishermen in Washington State who were desperate to show off their catches online ended up livestreaming their way into a ticket Friday. The unidentified anglers were recording themselves catching salmon on the Quillayute River and breaking several fishing regulations in the process. They were apparently unaware that game wardens with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife were tuning in.
In a Facebook post, WDFW officials said an officer had gotten a tip about the livestreaming anglers. The agency didn’t note where the tip came from, but it was likely another angler, as the livestreamers were floating down the Quillayute in a drift boat, and the tipster shared where they were on the river.
“While Officer McComber drove to the incident location, several clips were recorded from the suspect’s livestream that showed him and another angler illegally removing fish from the water to show off for the camera,” the post reads. “Officer McComber arrived on scene and hiked downriver to the drift boat’s location and observed the individuals as they were continuing to livestream and fish.”
WDFW says the one recording abruptly “disengaged his broadcast” as soon as McComber asked them to row to shore. McComber warned them not to mess with their gear, and then watched one of the fishermen do just that. The angler admitted when on shore that he’d been using a barbed hook illegally and was trying to hide it.
The violations didn’t stop there. McComber learned that one of the anglers had kept on fishing after catching his limit of salmon. This is illegal in Washington, and is considered “attempting to exceed a fishing limit,” according to WDFW. The angler also failed to record his harvests on his catch card — another violation — and he’d been pulling fish out of the water to show them off for the livestream. Both anglers were cited as a result.
WDFW explained in the post that it is unlawful to remove a salmon, steelhead, or Dolly Varden/bull trout completely out of the water if the angler plans to release it (or if it’s illegal to catch the fish in the first place). The reason for these strict “keep ‘em wet” rules is that Washington’s anadromous fish populations are suffering, with some runs on the brink of extinction. So managers are trying to do everything they can to protect the dwindling resource.
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“This rule is in place to help with handling mortality,” the agency explained in the post. “It is not only illegal, but [properly handling fish] is one of the best things anglers can do to ensure we have these fisheries in the future.”
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