The poacher committed a federal crime when he harvested the eggs and sold them to a caviar distributor in another state
A U.S. District Court in Paducah, Kentucky, handed down a hefty sentence for fishing-related crimes on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. The court sentenced Daniel Allen, 44, of Brookport, Illinois, to one year and one day in federal prison after Allen pled guilty to illegally catching sturgeon from the Ohio River and selling the eggs to a caviar distributor in another state. Allen’s prison sentence will be followed by two years of supervision, and he has already agreed to pay $10,000 in restitution.
Allen admitted to the court that between November 2018 and April 2019 he harvested shovelnose sturgeon from the Ohio River along the Kentucky/Illinois border using illegally sized mesh nets. He was also fishing out of season and targeting sturgeon near the Smithland Lock and Dam, which is closed to commercial fishing.
In addition to these crimes, Allen admitted to selling the sturgeon eggs to a caviar distributor in Tennessee. This violated the Lacey Act, which prohibits the transporting and selling of any plant, fish, or wildlife species that is harvested illegally. And because Allen crossed state lines to sell the roe, he was charged with a federal crime.
