Caught on Video: Rescue or Crime
The case has been sent to OC authorities for review
JoshuaJonesCS
At first, it looked like a marine rescue. Then the YouTube videos were posted.
The black sea bass' story unfolded in front of a crowd of cheering witnesses Jan. 3 at Balboa Pier. After it was hooked, a boat of anglers towed the fish into shallow waters.
A shirtless man wearing jeans paddled into the water off Newport Beach and cut the fishing line to free the fish -- a protected species under California law.
Officials with the Department of Fish and Game said they initially believed the man tried to rescue the fish. But after viewing videos posted on YouTube and other sites, they're not so sure.
The videos show the man drag the fish ashore and into a crowd of cheering beach-goers. The case was forwarded to the Orange County District Attorney, according to the OC Register.
“The man was interviewed by phone at the time, and it looked like a catch-and-release situation,” Lt. Dan Sforza, a DFG patrol officer, told the OC Register. “But more and more videos have popped up (on YouTube) to show that there was a lot more to the situation than that. So we’ve referred the case to the D.A. for consideration.”
The character at the center of this fish story weighed 80 to 100 pounds, according to wildlife officials.
Officials initially said the angler who caught it made in "incidental take" -- he wasn't aware of what he had on the end of the line.
Before the videos surfaced, a DFG spokesman had the following to say about the incident:
"They hauled it to the beach, where the guy who caught it tried to take the hook out of the fish’s mouth. He wasn’t trying to possess the sea bass, which would have been a violation of the law. He was trying to remove the hook to help the fish and let it go...
"We're reviewing it to determine what, if any, crime occurred," Farrah Emami, a district attorney's spokeswoman, told the LA Times.
