The 63-year-old captain of a Montauk, New York, fishing trawler has been convicted of federal conspiracy and fraud charges for violating local fishing rules that his lawyers say are outdated, wasteful and wouldn't be a crime in other states.
A federal jury found Christopher Winkler, who owns the 45-foot trawler named New Age that is based on Long Island's East End, guilty of five counts last week – two each of mail fraud and obstruction of justice and one more for criminal conspiracy for an overfishing plot that racked up nearly $1 million in proceeds.
The problem is, according to his defense, if Winkler had caught the fish in neighboring New Jersey, there likely wouldn't have been a crime at all.
"The principal culprits here … are the antiquated fish landing quotas, particularly those for fluke that haven’t changed in some 30 years, which cheat New York fishermen out of their livelihoods even as New York’s fluke population has been increasing," said Richard Levitt, who is one of Winkler’s attorneys.
For now, the defense is evaluating whether to file post-trial motions and planning to appeal once a sentence is handed down.
"If Mr. Winkler had caught and landed the same fish in New Jersey, where the landing limits inexplicably are often as much as 10 times those in New York, there likely would not have been a prosecution," Levitt said. "As it is, New York fishermen, if they catch above their trip limits, are supposed to throw the fish back into the water even though these fish are dead and, therefore, wasted."
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In other countries, he said, excess catch can be donated to food banks or for agricultural uses.
"There is nothing at all rational about this system, but Mr. Winkler and other Long Island fishermen are easy scapegoats for this regulatory insanity," Levitt said.
The Department of Justice disagrees, saying in a statement that New York’s fishing regulations were designed in a partnership between state environmental officials and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to "ensure a long-term, sustainable population."
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An 18-page federal indictment accuses Winkler of violating quotas on hundreds of fishing trips between 2014 and 2017, falsifying documents, and conspiring with the fish dealer, Gosman's, to cover it up. The plot allegedly earned more than $750,000 in proceeds on about 200,000 pounds of over-limit summer flounder, also known as fluke, and $85,000 on 20,000 pounds of excess black sea bass.
On one occasion, Winkler allegedly dumped overharvested fish overboard as a Coast Guard vessel approached his trawler.
According to the indictment, both commercial fishermen and licensed dealers must file reports on a weekly basis with NOAA about their hauls.
Cousins Bryan and Asa Gosman of Bob Gosman Co. Inc. pleaded guilty in 2021 for their roles in the plot, in which prosecutors said they provided false dealer records to align with Winkler’s filings and helped the captain avoid detection.
They bought the over-quota fish from Winkler wholesale and offloaded the haul from there, according to authorities.
"Fluke and black sea bass play a vital part in our marine ecosystem and quotas are designed to prevent overfishing and stabilize populations for the public good," Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim said in a statement.
Winkler's conviction is the latest in an ongoing series of legal disputes between American fishermen and the federal government.
In June, commercial captains from Louisiana and Mississippi sued the Biden administration, alleging that some federal fishing regulations are unconstitutional. Kim was involved in that case as well, court documents show, arguing against the plaintiff claims.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
