Can you forward the pictures to a game warden?

I sent several messages as well to the Pier's facebook site. The guy is super ignorant himself which doesn't surprise now that the people fishing the pier are as well. If you operate a business that also people to take part in a particular activity, then you should have some sort of regulation about how the people are going to do it, and give them the tools to do it properly and safely.

They could very easily post signs, or have someone walk a trip up and down once in a while. I'm sure the game warden doesn't go there BECAUSE HE GETS A BOAT AND CAN GO ANYWHERE HE WANTS. Why would he waste his time on a hot crowded pier where people would just hate him.

I personally like the idea of the news, maybe you could get channel 13 to do a story on it? They person wont remove the photos from facebook either, as they claim it teaches people what not to do. NOT IF ALL THEY SEE IS THE PICTURE AND THE PERSON SMILING! This issue makes me so mad, and its repeated a thousand times across the state I'm sure.

I've thought about approaching the a few news stations. I'll probably give the game warden a call and see what he recommends also.

I think there are a lot of things that the pier could do. They could hire someone who sits in a booth or actively walks up and down the pier to help educate the public. They could put a positive conservation approach on the whole thing. There are tons of marine biology students at ATM Galveston that I'm sure would take the job for minimum wage.

If they could put their foot down about poaching and stop allowing it, then some of these trashy people would stop coming to the piers. Then you would have the real sportsmen start using the piers again. I think it would be better for all parties.

Is the Galveston Fishing Pier (91st Street) this bad also?

I frequent Red Dot Pier and they do their best to prevent poaching. They people up front try to walk out and take pics of the big fish. They also weigh and measure them...and will release them as a "forced" courtesy.

I dont think you can rly put it on the owner of the fishing peirs sadly.Honestly its the people themselfs. There needs to be more tickets/fines going out. Story of my life. Picking up other fishermans Trash left at the lake, shell casings left in the woods. Im a catch and release guy 80%+ of the time. If I want table fair i make sure its more plentiful species and I try to take "slot fish" not big mature examples IE breeding population. I think alot of what you see at the peirs is people who have never fished the salt. I am that person honestly havnet done very much YET. Though I catch and release everything outside of things I know exactly what they are. I also keep several copies of the regs.

When I have seen this on piers (used to take my nephews fishing on them when they were young), I'd call up LE Communications and report the ongoings. Local Galveston Co. Game Wardens would show within 30-45 minutes and walk the pier issuing tickets.

Talk about some irrate, upset folks, but hey, the information is out there, (Outdoor Annual and the TPWD website), it is the person fishing responsibility to research and read up on what can and can not be done or allowed and how many and what size can you keep and which ones to release.

You can always call Operation Game Thief if you see anyone committing a game violation anywhere while fishing to 1-800-792-GAME (4263) and report it, could even receive a monetary reward for a conviction.

How many tickets do you think game wardens write that are never paid?

Ive seen a bunch of people get tickets for no liscense that didnt have the money to be fishing and didnt speak english, you think they are gonna pay a ticket?

Call the local Game Wardens directly. It's easy! Here are the phone numbers for the ones in Galveston County. Go directly to the officers. Everyone I know likes the tips directly.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/warden/find_warden/county.phtml?county=GALVESTON

Call the regional and district offices as well.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/warden/media/reg04st-web.pdf

Sorry SpeciesFisherman, this is ENTIRELY wrong. Its the responsibility of ever person that picks up a fishing rod to familiarize themselves with the rules and regulations of the species they are fishing for. There is a reason there is a booklet comes with every fishing license. I'm more interested to see Public Piers require every angler show a valid license PRIOR to entry with fishing gear. This is whwere the poaching begins, unliscenced fishing... I see illegal aliens throwing nets in the San Marcos River and Guadalupe River regularly, and the raiding of the enforcement funds by the Welfare-State Social Justice folks isnt helping enforcement. Its up to us to educate, but there is a fine line considering its illegal to interfere with other's fishing. I agree with the Original Poster (keep fighting the good fight) but couldnt disagree more with "pleading ignorance".

Somnipod is correct. It is the anglers responsibility and legal obligation to know the law. Same as anything else. You can't run a stop sign and tell a cop that you didn't know that you aren't allowed to run stop signs. Ignorance is no excuse for the law.

Here is a link to an article I wrote for my website around this time last year. Hopefully this helps anyone who might want some help IDing sharks. I wrote it for pretty much the same reason as the stuff we see here. I saw a lot of people poaching sharks on accident because of mis-identification or lack of even trying.

http://lostboysblog.com/2012/08/12/sharkid/

I've been thinking about this quite a bit over the weekend. I think I'm going to call a game warden today and see what they say. The only thing that I think they would be able to do is try to track down ticket the people in the pictures. Legally, I don't think there is anything they can do to the pier owners.

Makes me wonder though... is a charter boat captain responsible if he lets his clients poach? What about a hunting guide? I know if I went out with a hunting guide and shot a bald eagle he would sure as heck call the GW on me... why shouldn't the pier owner do the same?

I figure that the only way to get the pier to think about their actions would be to try to get in touch with a news station. If they can't be punished legally, a news story might put them in some hot water and make them rethink the way they do business.

This sandbar shark wasn't the only instance of poaching... Here are some other examples from their Facebook page.

Juvenile Bull Shark (must be 64")


Another Sandbar shark (on the protected species list)


4 Non Tagged Bull Reds on a stringer (he claims he caught them back to back, put them on the stringer for a picture and then released them all... hmmmmm)


A smooth dogfish that has been gutted (must be 64")


A juvenile bull shark (pier staff IDed this shark as a black tip)


Not sure what this shark is, but i'm fairly certain its not a blacktip, bonnethead, or sharpnose, so its either a protected species or needs to be 64"


These don't include the countless photos of dead bull reds that don't have tags on them.

great post and research... let us know what the warden says.

Piers aren't the only place, I see this going on in just about every park that you can fish at here in Baytown.

I mentioned to a guy once that he needed a license to catch crabs, he said why, he doesn't have a license to drive and he does.

I won't talk about the bucket full of undersized crabs he was putting into the back of his truck.

I am seeing a Warden about once every two weeks now showing up at the Baytown Nature center and when he makes his first pass through, within minutes there is a traffic jam at the exit, so most of em know they are breaking the law.

I still dispute your identification of a sandbar shark, especially the second photo in post #8748993. The info I have says:

"A confusing shark to identify, its diagnostic feature is its large first dorsal fin being located over its pectoral fins rather than slightly behind them as in the dusky shark. It can be differentiated from the bull shark by having a distinct ridge on its back between the dorsal fins. Color is widely variable, ranging through all shades of brown and gray above, becoming paler or whitish beneath."

In that picture, the dorsal is definitely behind the pectoral fins. In the very fist picture at the beginning of the thread, the same appears to be true but that picture isn't at a good enough angle to be sure.

DayOne, I read your statement, and tried to take an unbiased look myself. I will be honest, I know very little about shark identification, but I don't plan to keep any anyway.
So check it out, I Googled sandbar shark and searched under the image tab. It's very easy to see that the shark in each photo could match a sand bar shark. I would argue that both of the dorsal fins are above the pectoral fins like the statement you provided says, and also when comparing pictures, I realize it doesnt say how much about the pectoral fins just that it is. In other pictures you will see it's only slight above the fins.

If that is your only argument about them not being sandbars then I think I would have believe the OP, as the sharks look very similar...

But thats not really the point anyway. You can go through the photos from the site and quickly see violations with other sharks, or other kinds of fish, often being bull reds. Big bulls are a protected specials and these guys just fill their cooler full.