Christopher Serju, STAR Writer

What started as a sales trip for three young Westmoreland fishermen, who turned up at the Negril Police Station to sell their fish, ended with two being convicted for breaching the Wildlife Protection Act.

Tajohn Hazle of Whitehall and Jemair Ranking of Savanna-la-Mar, were each fined $10,000 in the Savanna-la-Mar Resident Magistrate's Court recently after pleading guilty to selling immature fish.

helping to sell the fish

The third fisherman, Dennis Jones, was discharged with a warning, after Resident Magistrate Gordon accepted the explanation that though he was helping to sell the fish, he did not catch them.

The court heard that, on September 4, the three turned up at the police station to sell fish to civilian employees. Members of the Marine Police Division also expressed an interest in buying fish but, upon examining the contents of the basket, found that most were juveniles, well below the legal catch.

After a detailed examination, the police advised the men they were in breach of the Wildlife Protection Act, charged them and confiscated the fish.

The men were charged under Section 9, subsection 1, of the act which states "Every person who takes or attempts to take; or knowingly kills or injures or attempts to kill or injure; or knowingly buys, sells, exposes for sale or has in his possession, fish which is immature shall be guilty in an offence against this Act."

Meanwhile, Section 20 of the Wildlife Protection Act states, in part, that a person, upon summary conviction before a resident magistrate, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months.