The father and son, who own a portion of an Petersburg fish lodge have been cited on Tuesday with a charge by authorities from the State of Alaska with over 50 violations of fishing laws in Alaska.
Walter Payne, 74, and Mikel Payne 50, are the owners at Rocky Point Resort, along with their families and staff.
Mikel faces 42 charges while Walter faces 13 charges of committing violations during the months of June, July and August of 2020.
The charges are all infractions that involve illegal fishing for the halibut. Halibut is strictly controlled with a restricted quota available to fishing for sport and commercial purposes and harvests have to be documented. Federal and state officials participated in probes. They say that the two men assisted their clients to eat too much Halibut, but did not properly keep track of the halibut taken.
The majority of charges are related to guided anglers fishing the halibut. Halibut quotas are that commercial fishermen sell to guided sport fishermen via an federal catch-sharing scheme.
The charges are a follow-up to the trail of more than 50 similar charges that were racked up in May, against four fishing guides from the lodge.
The summons to both Paynes were sent out on Wednesday. The arraignment date is December. 4 in the Petersburg Courthouse. Mikel Payne, when contacted via phone on Thursday, stated that they hadn’t heard of the charges as of yet. Walter Payne could not be reached.
The prosecuting attorney for the state has been named Ronald Dupuis with the Office of Special Prosecutions in Anchorage.
