MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – A Mendocino County jury last week found two San Francisco men guilty of abalone poaching following an incident off the Mendocino Headlands.
Jurors found Hou N. Huang, 47, guilty of excessive taking of abalone, and Hong Mei, 39, guilty of unlawful possession of abalone.
The trial lasted three days, but jurors deliberated for only 2 1/2 hours, according to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.
The prosecution’s trial evidence came through single-witness testimony of state Fish and Game Warden Don Powers.
Powers testified that he was patrolling the Mendocino Headlands, when he stopped and watched Huang dive and come up with an abalone on 14 separate occasions. Huang put nine abalone in his dive tube.
The warden testified Huang then swam over to Mei, and Mei took five abalone from Huang. The men then went out of view behind a rock. When the two came back into view, they were now accompanied by a woman. When these three people were subsequently contacted on shore, they had three abs each.
Warden Powers explained to the jury that it is common, but illegal, for people to "high-grade" abalone, meaning a diver illegally takes more than his or her allotted three per day, and then compares and discards all but the largest three. Since abalone blood does not clot, the abalone left behind often die.
In summary, the jury rejected the defendants’ claims of misidentification. It was argued that Warden Powers could not have positively identified and distinguished the two defendants from the other divers in the same area.
The court-appointed defense lawyers aggressively questioned the warden’s observations because, it was argued, he was using binoculars at a distance of 130 yards.
Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Clayton Brennan sentenced Huang to 24 months court probation, 15 days in jail, court fees, a fine of $2,545, plus forfeiture of his dive gear and the seized abalone.
Judge Brennan sentenced Mei to 24 months court probation, court fees, a fine of $1,499, five days in jail, and other terms similar to Huang. The men are now prohibited while on probation from recreational or commercial fishing.
"I would like to thank the jury," said prosecutor Tim Stoen, “for their service and for reaching a just verdict." DDA Stoen also commended Warden Powers for a good investigation. District Attorney David Eyster said his office will continue “to work with the Fish and Game wardens to target poachers in order to protect the abalone resource that belongs to all of us.”