YEARS AGO,<\/span> <\/strong>a popular winter fishing destination in my area was at the outflow of the now defunct Oyster Creek power plant at the Jersey Shore. During the cold months, resident striped bass would pile into the warm discharge, most of which flowed through public property that was legally accessible. Droves of anglers would show up, and many of them posted photos of their catches. Some even filmed their trips to this location and posted them to YouTube. Even the seemingly venerable NJ.com posted a well-produced video<\/a> about Oyster Creek calling it the place where summer fishing never ends. Within that video, anglers openly admit they found the spot thanks to YouTube videos. There was just one big problem: It was, and still is, illegal to target striped bass in the back bays of New Jersey between January 1 and March 1.<\/p>\n From March 1 on, Oyster Creek was fair game, but people were blatantly posting their fish prior to that date. In some cases, they\u2019d hold the posts until March 1, thinking nobody would consider that snow on the ground made it clear this was shot weeks ago. In talking to folks who used to frequent the spot, many had an attitude of, \u201cwell, I know the season is closed but everyone else is down there doing it.\u201d While that doesn\u2019t justify the action, it\u2019s a stance that might get you by if you\u2019re low key: You catch your fish, leave, and shut up about it. But for people angling for social recognition or to grow a channel, you\u2019re trying to be everything but low key.<\/p>\n To my eye, the nonchalance about making sure you\u2019re following fishing regulations to the letter of the law continues to grow as more and more people try to stake claims in social fishing content. Week over week, new YouTube channels pop up; new \u201csuggested\u201d Instagram posts are served to us every day. Each one represents a person or budding business willing to give their money to the platform to boost their presence. People are so hungry to be \u201csomebody\u201d that it\u2019s not uncommon for them to take little risks to achieve that goal.<\/p>\n One of the most recent cases of a YouTube video getting anglers in hot water occurred in Alaska. According to the story on Alaskapublic.org<\/a>, Jacob Keels, Ryan Cornelio, and Josh Liedes were cited for removing coho salmon from the Kenai River during the closed season between November and June. Keels and Liedes were also cited for fishing without a license. But none of these violations were cited in real time. Alaska Wildlife Troopers were able to issue the citations because the three anglers posted their violations on their YouTube channel, Kenai Boys Outdoors. Perhaps the most important part of the story is that Kenai Boys Outdoors wasn\u2019t exactly a channel with millions of viewers. It was practically brand-new, proving that the hammer of wildlife authorities is just as likely to drop on you whether you\u2019re the biggest thing in fishing or just beginning to chase that dream.<\/p>\n Keels only launched Kenai Boys Outdoors<\/a> last summer, and it presently has just a hair over 1,000 subscribers. To be fair, Keels and company were targeting Kenai River rainbow trout, which are in season. Cohos, I gather, will take shots at the same offerings, effectively making them bycatch. Per Alaska rules, when this happens you must unhook the salmon without removing it from the water.<\/p>\n Whether Keels and crew were aware of the rule or not is unclear, but as I\u2019ve written before, ignorance is never an acceptable excuse for violating fish and game laws. Familiarizing yourself with the intricacies of the rules only becomes doubly important if you plan to document your adventures for YouTube. And therein lies the disconnect: If you work in outdoor media, it is your job <\/em>to know the law. It makes no difference if you have five followers or 500,000.<\/p>\n If you work in outdoor media, it is your job <\/em>to know the law. It makes no difference if you have five followers or 500,000.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Yet I can see how it would be easy to let content trump ethical or legal slip-ups early on in trying to gain some recognition. It can be very easy to think, not that many people are paying attention right now. <\/em>I also firmly believe that if you do screw up, knowingly or unintentionally, you have to own it. Keels did that, at least\u2014sort of.<\/p>\n Shortly after the citations were issued, Kenai Boys Outdoors posted a video speaking to the incident. The title of the video, however, is \u201cHow To Fish For Winter Rainbows On The Upper Kenai.\u201d<\/a> I know a little bit about search engine optimization, and that title reads like a tactic to bury the video. If anyone were to search something like \u201cKenai Boys apology\u201d or \u201cKenai Boys salmon handling,\u201d they wouldn\u2019t get any returns. In the video, no rainbow trout are caught nor tactics explained. It\u2019s essentially two minutes of Keels grazing the subject saying, \u201cit has recently come to our attention that we\u2019ve been mishandling salmon.\u201d<\/p>\n He never speaks directly about the citations. Furthermore, he never brings up being cited for fishing without a license, which is\u2014in my opinion\u2014a much worse and much less forgivable infraction than mishandling a couple fish.<\/p>\n The bottom line is this: Do either of these violations make Keel and company evil, horrible people? Absolutely not. Do they deserved to be indefinitely shamed over them? No, they don\u2019t. But you can\u2019t deny that had these fellas just been out fun fishing instead of creating that precious content to feed the machine, I wouldn\u2019t be writing about them. They ultimately made the decision to (or mistake of) making their violations public. And this certainly isn\u2019t the first time something like this has happened.<\/p>\n Just this February, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers were able to nab poacher Sidney Hurst after a years-long investigation<\/a> that focused, in large part, on tracking his social media posts. This March, David Jimenez, who goes by \u201cDolphin Dave\u201d on social media, was cited for harassing a humpback whale<\/a> and pod of dolphins in video shot in Hawaii. In January, YouTube stars Josh and Sarah Bowmar plead guilty to conspiring to break the Lacey Act<\/a> after shooting content with a Nebraska outfitter who was using illegal bait traps to attract whitetail deer. I found these three examples of wanting to be out front on social media getting people in serious trouble in about 30 seconds by typing \u201cwildlife violations + social media\u201d into a Google News search.\u00a0 Sadly, I could keep adding to the list for pages and pages.<\/p>\n What\u2019s important to remember is that you don\u2019t need to be a personality in the outdoor media game\u2014or even aspire to become one\u2014to get nailed via social media. You can just be\u2026well, you. All these platforms did, after all, start as a means to stay connected with close friends and family, which is still how many people use them today. Maybe you hardly post at all. Maybe you only have 200 followers so what are the odds that one quick grip-and-grin with an out of season striper or trout will get you pinched? Slimmer, perhaps, but not impossible if you consider that the door swings both ways\u2014your one post might seemingly be reaching very few people, but it\u2019s now part of a massive public database that wildlife agencies can\u2019t ignore. Even if authorities don\u2019t spot your wrongdoing directly, one share or message is all it takes. Many state agencies monitor social media closely, particularly around areas of high traffic where infractions are more common, such as along many Great Lakes salmon tributaries and rivers that load up with spawning walleyes.<\/p>\n What the study showed was that even when you\u2019re not bragging via photo or video, Big Brother is still watching you.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In a journal article<\/a> on Wiley.com titled \u201cDigital fisheries data in the Internet age: Emerging tools for research and monitoring using online data in recreational fisheries,\u201d several case studies involving the use of social media by wildlife agencies are noted. One of the most intriguing was tied to the surge of land-based shark fishing in South Florida<\/a>, a sport which grew by leaps and bounds in the social media age. The study showed that even when you\u2019re not bragging via photo or video, Big Brother is still watching you.<\/p>\nTake Your Lumps<\/h2>\n
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Risky Business<\/h2>\n
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