$190,000 Lobster Fine

Two Maine men are facing a possible $190,000 fine for unlawfully possessing over 400 endangered egg-bearing female lobsters.

$190,000 Lobster Fine

Ricky Curtis, 48, and his son Todd Curtis, 29, have pleaded not guilty through mail at the Rockland, Maine’s Knox County District Court. 

According to Maine’s Department of Marine Resources, marine patrol officers found the lobsters during an inspection on a boat Ricky Curtis owned. The lobsters were marked with a v-shaped notch on their tails or had been mutilated to get rid of the notch.

The state requires lobstermen to notch egg-bearing females’ tails before they send them back into the ocean, as means for conservation. The lobsters are then able to reproduce several additional times.

Marine Patrol Chief Colonel Joseph Fessenden said the state considers this an extremely serious delinquency. He said the illegal removal of lobsters can adversely affect the supply and is stealing from the lobstermen that follow the laws each day.

The two men retained lawyer Phillip Cohen, who declined to make any statement about the charges.