QUILCENE — Two men were arrested Thursday after a 13-month multi-agency investigation into the illegal harvest of hundreds of thousands of pounds of shellfish from both state-managed and private tidelands.
More arrests are likely, said Deputy Chief Mike Cenci of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Donald Lance Owens, 43, of Quilcene, was arrested for investigation of first-degree theft, possession of stolen property and failure to report commercial shellfish harvesting.
Rodney Allan Clark, 45, also of Quilcene — who is the owner of G&R Quality Seafood, also known as Quil Bay Seafood in Quilcene — was arrested for investigation of five counts of being a felon in possession of a gun.
Clark served time in prison in the 1990s in Montana for manufacturing methamphetamine.
Both men were being held without bail in the Jefferson County jail in Port Hadlock on Thursday night awaiting arraignment in Jefferson County Superior Court.
Fish and Wildlife enforcement officers working with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office made the arrests after serving search warrants on G&R.
“Conservatively, we’re talking about at least 300,000 oysters and thousands of pounds of hard shell clams,” Cenci said.
Cenci said that Fish and Wildlife detectives believe the seafood company employed harvesters to take thousands of pounds of oysters and hard-shell clams from state and private tidelands in the Quilcene, Dabob and north Hood Canal areas.
“They did not have certification to harvest,” Cenci said.
Believing others are involved, he said, the investigation continues.
“This has been an intensive investigation and it will continue to be,” Cenci said.
“There is a lot of evidence to be analyzed before we get our arms around the breadth of the illegal activities.”
Cenci said the agency alleges that Owens and others illegally gathered hundreds of thousands of shellfish from tidelands managed by the state Department of Natural Resources, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State Parks and private lands.
“These guys were discovered through citizen complaints and the [state] Department of Health,” Cenci said.
“Officers spent many cold nights in the bushes conducting surveillance,” he added.
Night vision technology was used to watch illegal harvesting at low tides in the cover of darkness, Cenci said.
Authorities searching Clark’s home office for records Thursday morning found firearms in the house.
Officers seized 300 pounds of hard-shell clams, 100 pounds of oysters, two barges, a 16-foot fiberglass vessel, five firearms and a van.
The shellfish take is estimated to be valued at several hundred thousand dollars.
The small shellfish company on Quilcene Bay resells its catch at Western Washington farmer’s markets from Lake Forest Park to Issaquah and to wholesalers as far away as Brooklyn, N.Y., Cenci confirmed.
The seized shellfish did not bear required certification from the state Department of Health and will be destroyed as required by state law, Cenci said.
Information gathered during the investigation will be turned over to the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Fish and Wildlife also worked in cooperation with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement and the Coast Guard in the investigation.
During the course of the investigation, Fish and Wildlife officers, sheriff deputies, NOAA enforcement agents and Coast Guard officers interviewed more than 20 people suspected of being linked to the violations.
Certification of shellfish means that each bag of shellfish harvested is marked with a number issued to the certified party, which allows authorities to trace contaminated or polluted shellfish back to its origin if someone is sickened by it.
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
