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Two Md. Poachers Banned For Life From Fishing Striped Bass

BALTIMORE, Md. (WJZ) -- Two Talbot County men are banned for life from fishing striped bass after they were found guilty of poaching and selling nearly $500,000 of striped bass over a four-year span, authorities said.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources imposed the lifetime bans on Michael Hayden Jr. and William Lednum, both of Tilghman Island, who have also been suspended from all commercial fishing for the next year.

The men will also be subject to a four-year probationary period following the suspension. Plus they're on the hook for $498,000 in court-ordered restitution to the state.

After a federal grand jury indicted them on dozens of counts in 2013, both men pleaded guilty to carrying out a scheme in which they caught and sold at least 10 tons of striped bass out of season using banned anchored nets off Kent Island between 2007 and 2011. They acknowledged forging permit allocation cards and daily catch records to cover their tracks.

In February of 2015, Hayden was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by six months of home detention and three years of monitored release. He was fined $40,000. Lednum, meanwhile, was sentenced to one year in prison and then six months of home detention with a $40,000 fine.

In a statement Monday, Natural Resources Secretary Mark Belton said he hopes the lifetime bans send a strong message to poachers that "the state is serious about protecting the fishery."

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