Ocean Sentry
(From cassville-democrat.com) – A former Shell Knob man has been charged with using illegal nets to catch paddlefish and harvest their eggs, which he then processed into caviar and sold to a company in Tennessee.
After retrieving the paddlefish from the nets, Nix used a knife to slit the underside of the fish and extract the eggs, which were then sealed in plastic bags, placed in a cooler and transported to Nix”s Shell Knob residence. After removing the eggs from the fish, Nix attempted to hide his illegal acts by weighting the paddlefish carcasses with rocks and sinking the carcasses in the Table Rock Lake.
Nix allegedly set gill nets in the water on Table Rock Lake, checking them every one to three nets, removing the fish and relocating the nets as the paddlefish moved upstream to spawn. Gill nets are commercial fishing nets set vertically in the water so that fish swimming into it become entangled by the gills in its mesh.
The eggs taken by Nix were processed into caviar and sold to a Tennessee company that is engaged in buying, processing and selling caviar. The indictment states that Nix told the company the caviar he was selling had been lawfully taken in Arkansas.
Court documents also indicate that Nix sold approximately 387 pounds of paddlefish caviar to the Tennessee firm for $35,820.
