James Phillip Nelson
California , MD – A St. Mary’s County man, whose commercial license was revoked for oyster harvesting violations in 2015, and another waterman were charged Wednesday after they were seen taking oysters from a closed area.
James Phillip Nelson, 40, and Melanie Ann Wheeler, 38, both of California, were hand-scraping for oysters in an area of the Jones Shore bar that is designated for hand tongs only. Officers determined that the two were well inside the marked boundary.
They were issued Potomac River Fisheries Commission citations and are required to appear in St. Mary’s County District Court on Feb. 2, 2017.
In Nov. 2015, Nelson had his commercial license permanently revoked by a St. Mary’s County District Court judge after he was convicted of harvesting oysters from a polluted area and keeping oysters that were between 28 and 48 percent undersized, a second offense on both counts.
He was fined $3,750, with $2,000 of it suspended, and was ordered to pay court costs. He also was sentenced to three years of unsupervised probation on each of the three charges.
Nelson has a history of poaching convictions dating back to the mid-1990s involving illegal crabbing, oyster harvesting and hunting.
