Blunderbuss Firozabad
Made of Pumpkin pie
Tim Hooper, fishery manager, shoveling out the dead pre-smolts.
"A Gardiner man was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly breaking into a fish hatchery and killing 18,000 salmon smolts with a bottle of bleach, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
Joshua Alexander Heckathorn, 22, was charged with second degree burglary, criminal trespass and criminal mischief. He will also be charged with various wildlife and poaching charges that could cost up to $13 million in fines."
"The hatchery said someone broke in by destroying several door locks and then dumped a gallon of bleach into one of the rearing tanks, killing 18,000 smolt Chinook salmon."
"The young salmon, between 3 and 4 inches long, were just about ready to join 60,000 others in June to be fin-clipped and dumped into Winchester Bay. They were supposed to eventually turn up in Alaska, where they would grow to full size.
Yates said fisherman aren’t allowed to catch and keep wild salmon, only the ones that are fin-clipped. So, the loss of the 18,000 fish impacts jobs, tourism dollars, and both recreational and commercial fisherman.
This is a costly loss. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates the value of each fish to be $775. Multiply that by the 18,000 fish that were killed, and it’s a total loss of just less than $14 million."
"The killing of these fish is a real blow," Oregon State Police fish and wildlife sergeant Levi Harris said. "In my 25 years as a game warden, this is one of the most senseless acts I have seen."".
Oregon man charged after allegedly using bleach to kill 18,000 juvenile salmon at Reedsport hatchery
A 20-year-old Gardiner man has been arrested and charged in the deliberate killing of 18,000 young salmon at a Reedsport hatchery.
www.opb.org
As a reminder, the reason there's no mugshot of Joshua Alexander Heckathorn, is because:
"During the 2021 legislative session, Oregon lawmakers passed House Bill 3273 prohibiting public disclosure of booking photos, commonly known as mugshots, except in a few limited circumstances, to protect the identity of people who have not been convicted of a crime."
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