Jury: man guilty of illegal crab fishing

A crab fisher was found guilty last week of fishing where he shouldn’t.

According to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, on Friday, November 11, a jury found Gerard Wetle, Jr., 41, guilty of setting baited crab traps in a protected marine conservation area.

Wetle was found guilty on 28 counts dating back to April 2016, when Wetle set 25 baited crab traps in the Soquel Canyon State Marine Conservation Area and deployed three baited crab traps without destruction devices. Regulations require that traps self-destruct to prevent the unchecked killing of animals.

California Fish and Wildlife wardens removed all 28 traps and returned 214 live Dungeness and rock crab to the ocean.

Wetle will be sentenced on December 7, 2016.