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POACHER'S FINES TO HELP SAVE ABALONE
Published on May 5, 1995
© 1995- The
Press Democrat
BYLINE: Bony
Saludes
Staff Writer
PAGE: A1
A former Sonoma County scuba diver who became part of the
largest abalone poaching ring in state history was
convicted Thursday and ordered to pay $30,000 into a special
trust fund to protect coastal resources.
Michael Anthony Vichi, 38, was the first to be
convicted of 12 people charged with participating in an
international poaching operation that involved as much as $2.4
million in illegal abalone in one year alone -- an
amount equal to one-fourth of all legal abalone
landings in 1994.
Vichi, who now lives in Rock Springs, Wyo., faced a maximum
of three years in prison and a $40,000 fine if found guilty by
a jury. Through a plea agreement that avoids a trial, he will
pay $30,000 into the resource fund and be placed on five
years' probation.
Deputy District Attorney Brooke Halsey, Jr. said Vichi
was offered the plea bargain because he was cooperative and
had broken with the ring on his own when he realized how much
damage it was doing.
After breaking from the group, Vichi moved to Wyoming,
where he is employed as a salesman. A governor's warrant was
issued for him, but he returned to Sonoma County voluntarily,
Halsey said.
Halsey, who is prosecuting the case, would not say
whether he intends to offer a similar deal to some of the
other defendants.
One of them, David Kagley, 35, of Santa Rosa, who acted
as a confidential informant, is expected to change his not
guilty plea today. A trial for the others is set for June 12.
Halsey said state Fish and Game officials and state
marine biologists estimate the 12 suspects took more than 20
tons of illegal abalone from Sonoma County over a
period of a year and sold it to a buyer in San Diego.
``The damage they caused to the abalone
population along the North Coast can't be repaired for 100
years,'' Halsey said. ``But the trust fund will be able to
protect what we have left of abalone fishing for our
children and our grandchildren.''
Halsey said his office and state officials decided it
was a good idea to require people who destroyed the resources
to pay to help restore them, particularly because the state
Fish and Game Department has cut funding for abalone
research projects.
Money in the trust fund will go for abalone
research and to help enforce fish and game laws along the
North Coast, Halsey said.
The fund will be administered by Konstantin Karpov of
Fort Bragg, a state marine biologist recognized as one of the
country's foremost abalone authorities, Halsey said.
Halsey said Vichi's ``donation'' to the trust fund is
in lieu of fines ranging from $20,000 to $40,000 that he could
have been required to pay for conspiring to violate fish and
game laws. But criminal fines could not be used for resource
protection, hence the special trust fund arrangement.
Superior Court Judge Raymond Giordano accepted the plea
agreement and ordered Vichi to pay into the trust fund at a
rate of $500 a month for the next five years, starting next
month.
Vichi on Tuesday pleaded no contest to a felony
conspiracy charge.
The judge noted the probation office recommended Vichi
be sent to prison for two years if he doesn't keep his
commitment to the trust fund.
``We consider this a very serious case,'' Halsey said.
``I would be asking for the maximum sentence for Vichi if his
participation in the poaching operation was equivalent to some
of the others.''
Halsey said the illegal operation was smashed after a
nine-month investigation by his office, game wardens and the
sheriff's department.
Sports fishing of abalone is allowed in season
on the North Coast, but commercial fishing of the mollusk
delicacies is prohibited.
Halsey said local divers took the abalone from
the Sonoma County coast between October 1993 and September
1994, first moving it to a safe house near the coast and then
to a home of two of the suspects in Santa Rosa for cleaning
and shipping to San Diego.
The abalone, which sell for about $60 a pound on
the street, allegedly were sold to Van Howard ``Hojo''
Johnson, 25, the owner of a seafood outlet in San Diego, for
resale to overseas markets, Halsey said.
Fish and Game officials said Eddie Blay, 34, of Santa
Rosa, the alleged ringleader in Sonoma County, paid scuba
divers $15 a pound to harvest the abalone and resold it
to Johnson for up to $25 a pound.
Keywords: FISHING
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