Poachers Caught

A wild collection of illegal hunting and fishing stories—all of them true! Life as a game warden is more dangerous and exciting than you might think. Tom Chapin served as a Minnesota Game Warden for 29 years, and his career was both exhilarating and harrowing. He had run-ins with everyone from illegal night hunters to major fish poachers. In Poachers Caught!, Tom shares the details of 35 of his most amazing, incredible cases. Each short story allows you to experience a riveting encounter as if you were a witness and participant. Fans of the great outdoors of all ages—especially hunters and anglers—will appreciate and enjoy this look into the life of a vital yet often underappreciated enforcer of the law.

More stories, more action, more foolhardy poachers! More Poachers Caught is a collection of 30 new stories from Minnesota Game Warden Tom Chapin and a few of his friends. Dangerous, spontaneous and sometimes comedic, these true adventures bring readers face to face with the problem of poaching. They are tales of greed, selfishness and hope.

Retired fishery officer Randy Nelson’s first love was catching poachers. That obsession, plus a devious mind and enthusiasm for marathon running, spelled big trouble for law-breaking fishermen. Thirty-five years in the field (and stream) netted a gold mine of stories with hair-raising tales of grizzly bear attacks, angry axe-wielding, rock-throwing, shotgun-blasting fishermen and high-speed chases on dirt roads and through bush. Poachers, Polluters and Politics provides a rare glimpse into the lives of DFO officers and the communities in which they live. Here too are stories showing the lighter side of the DFO, like how Nelson honed his “psychic powers,” and recollections of life in a rodent-infested, government-issue trailer—where his wife Lorraine once awoke to find a mouse chewing her hair. Firm but fair, and always innovative, Randy Nelson usually earned the—often grudging—respect of communities and fishermen he encountered. Whether it meant carving a peephole in a hollow tree or teaching his dog to sniff for salmon, Nelson was constantly scheming up new and tricky ways to catch poachers and polluters, many of them known violent criminals. Nelson spent a career dedicated to protecting BC’s waters and fish population and his passion for his work shines through with every word, drawing the reader into the exciting world of protecting wildlife and prosecuting bad guys.

For centuries, criminologists have looked for scientific ways to study, understand, and ultimately prevent crime. In this volume, a unique offense, poaching, is explored in various contexts to determine what opportunity structures favor this crime and how situational crime prevention may reduce its prevalence. The data sources used range from publically available secondary data about animal populations, to interviews with hunters, to actual law enforcement data collected inside protected areas. Various methods are utilized to look for patterns in poaching behaviour regarding where poachers strike, which species they target and their modus operandi. Collectively, the volume shows that principles of criminal opportunity theory and situational crime prevention are useful for studying and preventing poaching in a variety of contexts. The methods employed by each chapter are easily replicated and meant to stimulate empirical poaching research where data is available. While the theoretical grounding of this volume is drawn from criminology, it is written for a broad audience of academics, practitioners and those interested in wildlife conservation.

Part one explains the fundamental economic concepts.

A lively collection of wilder-than-fiction poaching stories from across Canada and the US, including insights from investigating officers involved in real poaching situations. Get ready to read some of the wildest true crime imaginable. Showcasing fish and wildlife poaching stories from every province and territory in Canada and every state in the United States, decorated fishery officer Randy Nelson offers a thrilling look into a dangerous industry. With insights gathered through thousands of phone calls and emails to investigating officers, The Wildest Hunt collects over one hundred North American fish and wildlife officers’ stories, with tales ranging from absolutely disgusting to hysterically hilarious. Nelson takes readers across North America, from busting turtle-trafficking rings in Oklahoma to collecting a 4.5-metre beluga whale from a bus in Saskatchewan. Nelson’s entertaining stories also shed light on the important work of fish and wildlife officers, and the often messy, sometimes dangerous situations they must face, as well as how important the public can be in solving wildlife crime.