Crabby Night ECOs enter water in plain clothes to nab poachers.

On Aug. 28, ECOs Connor Dodge and Daniel Plows conducted late night clamming and crabbing checks at low tide in Jamaica Bay, Queens. The evening started off slow with only three groups actively crabbing due to the sporadic rain and late low tides. ECO Dodge checked a group of three people leaving the bridge and discovered they had 36 crabs under the legal size out of their total catch of 75. Two of the individuals observed were issued a ticket for possessing blue claw crabs under the 4.5-inch size limit and the small crabs were returned to the water. Later, ECOs observed 15 people out in the water scooping crabs into their buckets. After about an hour, the ECOs developed a plan to nab them all. ECO Plows went into the water in plainclothes with a bucket and head lamp to blend in. He collected three groups of crabbers for ECO Dodge to inspect. While the ECOs were counting crabs, additional individuals exited the water. ECOs inspected their catch, as well, and found that all of them possessed undersized crabs over the limit of possession. In total, the ECOs counted approximately 700 blue claw crabs, of which 270 were under the size restriction and 400 were over the possession limit of the group. The late-night patrol resulted in ECOs Dodge and Plows issuing 14 summonses returnable to Queens County court for possession of undersize and over the limit of blue claw crabs.