12-09-2005, 10:45 AM
SHORELINE REGION Third Fisherman Is Charged
December 8, 2005By KIM MARTINEAU, Courant Staff Writer WESTBROOK -- A third angler has been charged with participating in a fishing trip off the coast of Clinton that brought in more than the legal limit of striped bass, circumventing state laws intended to protect the fish, environmental officials said.
John Frione, 50, of 23 Turtle Bay, Branford, turned himself in to state police in Westbrook on a warrant charging him with conspiracy to sell striped bass and commercial fishing without a license or a boat permit, all misdemeanors.
Frione, aboard his boat "Popeye," and his friends Benjamin Rapuano and John Zacks, aboard the "Jordan and Bailey," hooked 33 stripers one weekend off of Clinton in August, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
State law limits the catch for recreational anglers to two stripers a day.
Acting on a tip, the DEP staked out the marina on Clinton Harbor where the two boats had slips and watched as the hundreds of pounds of striped bass were packed on ice and driven away.
Authorities in Massachusetts arrested Rapuano, 51, of New Haven, and Zacks, 78, of East Haven, after they sold their catch to a seafood dealer in New Bedford, Mass., police said.
Rapuano and Zacks face 29 counts of possession of striped bass over the limit, commercial fishing without a license, conspiracy to sell striped bass and other charges. They are scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 20 in Superior Court in Middletown. Frione will be arraigned the following day.
To comment on this story, or to request a correction [url "http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-news-correx-cf,0,3980565.customform"]click here [/url]to send a message to Karen Hunter, The Courant's reader representative
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December 8, 2005By KIM MARTINEAU, Courant Staff Writer WESTBROOK -- A third angler has been charged with participating in a fishing trip off the coast of Clinton that brought in more than the legal limit of striped bass, circumventing state laws intended to protect the fish, environmental officials said.
John Frione, 50, of 23 Turtle Bay, Branford, turned himself in to state police in Westbrook on a warrant charging him with conspiracy to sell striped bass and commercial fishing without a license or a boat permit, all misdemeanors.
Frione, aboard his boat "Popeye," and his friends Benjamin Rapuano and John Zacks, aboard the "Jordan and Bailey," hooked 33 stripers one weekend off of Clinton in August, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
State law limits the catch for recreational anglers to two stripers a day.
Acting on a tip, the DEP staked out the marina on Clinton Harbor where the two boats had slips and watched as the hundreds of pounds of striped bass were packed on ice and driven away.
Authorities in Massachusetts arrested Rapuano, 51, of New Haven, and Zacks, 78, of East Haven, after they sold their catch to a seafood dealer in New Bedford, Mass., police said.
Rapuano and Zacks face 29 counts of possession of striped bass over the limit, commercial fishing without a license, conspiracy to sell striped bass and other charges. They are scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 20 in Superior Court in Middletown. Frione will be arraigned the following day.
To comment on this story, or to request a correction [url "http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-news-correx-cf,0,3980565.customform"]click here [/url]to send a message to Karen Hunter, The Courant's reader representative
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