Outdoors Girl: Federal jury finds rockfish dealer, workers guilty of poaching - Maryland parks and outdoors: Life in Maryland’s great outdoors by Candy Thomson

At their trials a year ago, Maryland and Virginia watermen accused of being part of the largest poaching case in the history of the Chesapeake Bay insisted that they were just small parts of a larger operation.

Yesterday, a federal jury in Greenbelt agreed, finding a Washington fish wholesaler and two Maryland employees guilty of purchasing illegally harvested striped bass from the Potomac River in Virginia and Maryland from 1995 through 2007.

Ocean Pro Ltd., one of Washington's largest seafood wholesalers that does business as Profish, company vice president Timothy Lydon of Bethesda, and fish buyer Benjamin Clough of Graysonville, were all found guilty of violating the Lacey Act, a federal law that prohibits individuals or corporations from transporting, selling or buying fish and wildlife that was harvested illegally.

In addition, Ocean Pro and Lydon were convicted of three felony Lacey Act violations, and Clough was convicted of three Lacey Act violations and a felony false statement charge.

Investigators estimate the defendants purchased more than 270,000 pounds of rockfish poached from Maryland and Virginia waters, with a fair market retail value of more than $1.6 million.

So far, the task force investigation has resulted in 22 felony convictions: 14 watermen from Maryland and Virginia, five seafood wholesalers, and three seafood wholesale companies in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington.

The conviction is a major triumph for federal prosecutors and a team of undercover investigators from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maryland Natural Resources Police and the Virginia Marine Police.

During a five-week trial, prosecutors told the jury that Lydon and Profish agreed to buy striped bass that they knew were illegally harvested by seven fishermen between 1995 and 2007. From 2001 and 2007, Clough continued the illegal practice.

Profish, Lydon, and Clough bought large rockfish from watermen during spawning season, when the fish are protected, and purchased illegally tagged fish, which resulted in overfishing.

Undercover officers bought fish, shadowed watermen and buyers and had fish samples analyzed to prove they were taken bu illegal means.

The defendants will be sentenced, as will others, before the end of the year.