Man fishing on a suspended license had 850 crabs in his possession before caught, DNR says
It wasn’t exactly “Deadliest Catch,” but a Yemassee man was arrested after being accused of taking hundreds of crabs in northern Beaufort County while fishing on a suspended commercial fishing license.
George Rauch, 78, was charged Saturday with unlawfully taking saltwater fish and three counts of unlawfully purchasing a marine license while under commercial suspension, Beaufort County jail records show.
Officials with the state Department of Natural Resources were conducting a routine patrol Saturday morning along Wimbee Creek, located north of St. Helena Island, when they allegedly caught Rauch engaging in commercial crabbing, according to DNR spokesperson Greg Lucas.
Rauch’s commercial license was suspended in June 2021 after he was caught tampering with others’ crab traps, DNR officials said.
Rauch attempted to take approximately 12 bushels — or around 850 crabs total, said Erin Weeks, a marine specialist at DNR. All of the crabs were safely returned to the water.
Rauch was catching blue crabs, a staple of Lowcountry marine life. The crab has sweet, “gourmet” meat and is easy to trap, making the species an important catch for fishermen in South Carolina, according to DNR.
One bushel of large male blue crabs goes for a market price of about $140 in Beaufort County.
Rauch was released Sunday from the Beaufort County Detention Center on a $4,360 bond, jail records show.
This incident comes in the middle of a volatile period in the crabbing industry, Weeks explained. With blue crab populations dramatically declining in the Chesapeake Bay and other vital ecosystems of the northeast, high demand has sent market prices soaring. As a result, many commercial crabbers have been transporting their product up the East Coast to increase profits.
DNR recommends always following safe and legal crabbing practices:
- Anglers can fish two crab pots with a recreational saltwater fishing license.
- It’s illegal to keep crabs under five inches wide.
- It’s illegal to keep female crabs with egg masses (also known as sponge crabs).
- Always leave crab pots with escape holes.
- Never leave your pot in the water for more than a few days without checking it. Abandoned pots continue to catch and kill marine animals.
This story was originally published November 29, 2022 at 12:51 PM.
