Clam Poaching, are We Number One?

The legendary Hatfield-McCoy feud erupted over the theft of a single pig. The theft of clams from the off-shore clam leases has the potential for the violence of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. There is wide-spread belief in Cedar Key that certain individuals account for repeated clam thefts over the past four years. If conventional law enforcement does not stop clam poaching there is danger of vigilante retribution.

When there was surveillance on the clam leases by a private firm, poaching was limited if not nonexistent. However, freeloaders did not contribute to the cost of private security and the system broke down. Now clammers must rely on the government to enforce the law.

Poaching depresses the price wholesalers pay for clams. Poaching endangers the quality of clams reaching the market. Poaching can bankrupt honest clammers when they lose thousands of dollars worth of clams over night. Continued poaching destroys faith in the agencies charged with enforcing the law.

The failure to catch a single poacher may be the result of no single agency giving full attention to the poaching problem. The agency most clearly responsible is the Division of Agricultural Law Enforcement. It has promised to provide a boat for its investigator sometime after July1. That is more than a year and a half after assigning the investigator to Cedar Key. Reasons given by the Division of Agricultural Law Enforcement for failure are too numerous to list here, In August there will be a conference on aquatic law enforcement.

An inspector on the water, radar, bigger rewards, whatever! One arrest and conviction of a clam poacher would be a big step considering the years that nothing has been accomplished.