It's hard enough that even the fishermen on this site can't agree on what species it is!

These pictures are taken by the employees of the pier and then proudly displayed on their Facebook page!

There are literally countless poaching violations.

Texas Game Wardens are constantly complaining that they lack funding for fuel to patrol the waterways by boat. So how about they take an occasional drive to the piers and write multiple citations to make examples of the violators?

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.

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.

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/

UPDATE: The game warden said that the pier can be cited also since they are charging people to fish on it. I wonder if they are going to be getting a handful of tickets.

Its obviouse the peir owners dont care, so hopefully the GW will do something about it. I called the GW a couple of years ago on some guys poaching stone crabs. Its obviouse where these pics were taken, so reporting it is good.

I will say though sometimes people jump the gun and start accusing people without knowing all the facts or with incomplete pictures. That why I have stopped posting photos of my catches and hunting kills. People always jump to conclustion. I posted a pic one time with 3 30" reds. They were not tagged, but they were caught in LA by myself and my boys. Totally legal. I didnt realize I needed to give my life history to strangers. People started calling me a poacher and threatening to call the GW. Go ahead, nut jobs.

...and often throw fish back if I cant identify them...

It's hard enough that even the fishermen on this site can't agree on what species it is!

Hey everyone, 61st Street Pier here, just wanting to chime in with a few thoughts on your discussion. First off, I was wondering if any of the commenters had ever been to the pier? It seems as if you have made many assumptions about how things are at the pier, but have no real knowledge as to what things are like there. I think they call that prejudice.



If we were proudly displaying acts of poaching, we would say something like "Congrats! Another one of those protected sand bar sharks!! Kill 'em all!!" or maybe "Take that TPWD! No tag on that red!! Ha ha ha" in the comments. In actuality, the pictures are displayed just as every other picture. Our employees typically are busy inside working, but occasionally are able to make it out to the pier to take a picture or two. Clearly, there has been some dispute between you hardened fishermen as to the proper identification of the shark in question, yet you expect all employees on the pier to be an ichthyologist. I agree, poaching does take place on the pier, is it something we like or promote, no. Is it possible to monitor every person who catches anything on the pier at any time, no.



We have approximately 1500 pictures on our facebook page, I would guess(not having looked through every one), that at the most there are 25 pictures that are questionable. That is about 2% of our pictures. What about the other 1475 pictures of people catching legal sized and species fish or just having fun fishing in the outdoors? The pictures are hardly countless. On another note, the majority of these pictures show little to no context of what the actual situation is. A cooler with more than one bull red? Maybe it is more than one fisherman. An undersized shark? Did it die before it could be released?



The game wardens do come out to the pier, and sometimes we call them out ourselves, the are welcome here at any time. Rarely are citations written on the pier because, for the most part, everyone is in compliance, despite your assumptions. We even have other anglers on the pier call the warden on people who are blatantly poaching or breaking rules. I welcome that as well. It seems as if you all think that nobody on the pier really cares. You are all wrong.




Joseph, you say I am ignorant, but you are not clear as to what I am ignorant of. Could you please elaborate? Your statement above, shows your ignorance pretty clearly. We do have signs posted for fish identification as well as size and bag limits. We also hand write the page number on the front of the TPWD booklet that has fish bag and size limits and hand it out to anyone who asks about fish identification. We have two cases of them right now. You would know that if you had ever been to the pier before. Most wardens do not have a boat, if they are lucky, they get themselves a green or white truck. And, like I said previously, the wardens do come out, sometimes on their own, sometimes because we call them, sometimes because another angler calls them.


Let's do a little math here. Minimum wage in Texas is $7.25, we are open 24/7. So, (24*365)7.25= $63,510 per year. This is not including insurance, workers comp, etc. Even at half the time, that is a lot of money. We are a fishing pier, not a yacht club. I invite any of you to come out to the pier to educate and inform our patrons at any time. Really. I mean it. If you come out to educate, i'll let you out for free.



Chris, that is a good article, I believe that I even commended you on our facebook page for taking action and not just whining and complaining about something and never actually doing anything, like many do. I even re-posted your blog entry for all of our facebook people to read.



Like most have said previously, the fishing is the responsibility of the person doing the fishing. The pier does not make them, nor promote or condone any type of poaching. We are not responsible for others actions. We are not even responsible for educating them, although we try our best with our booklets, posters, and employees. Its like you see a picture of a Ford crashed on the side of the road and you fault Ford for not properly teaching the driver how to drive a vehicle. BTW, yes a warden has been out to the pier since you started all of this Chris, and no, no citations were given to either the pier or anyone on the pier. I do doubt that they came out because of you.

Lastly, I would just like to note, that Joseph Starr, while attempting to organize a protest at our pier, had been planning a trip to another pier on this forum. And Chris aka Huntinfortail likes another pier on his "Lost Boys" facebook page even though he clearly speaks of his disdain for piers in general. Seems a little hypocritical to me.

The only reason you do not see pictures like the ones you see on our pier at other piers is because they dont take pictures or rarely take pictures. This type of misidentification happens state wide and it is all of our duty to do our best to educate those around us as to the right and wrong things to do with fish and sharks. I am certain that I personally and the staff at the pier have educated and will continue to educate far more people than all of you combined. Im sure you will find fault in some or all of the things I have said, I merely wanted to set the record straight from the pier's side and not have you all bash us when you clearly dont even have a clue as to what it is like on the pier.

Let's do a little math here. Minimum wage in Texas is $7.25, we are open 24/7. So, (24*365)7.25= $63,510 per year. This is not including insurance, workers comp, etc. Even at half the time, that is a lot of money. We are a fishing pier, not a yacht club. I invite any of you to come out to the pier to educate and inform our patrons at any time. Really. I mean it. If you come out to educate, i'll let you out for free.

If anyone cares about our game laws, like a few of us do; please, go to the FB page of 61st pier, and see the dozens of pictures of untagged , oversized redfish, undersized sharks, undersized gamefish, and protected species like turtles, and sandbar sharks that these people are slaughtering.

We truly need to start a letter writing campaign to the TPWD and the National Fisheries dept. to shutdown and or fine the owners and management of this pier; they clearly take NO responsability or measure to enforce the states game laws.