It's a big business in California.
Poachers steal an estimated $100 million worth of wild animals and fish every year in the state. Many of the thieves are repeat offenders, according to California Fish and Wildlife officials.
It is illegal to sell wild fish or animals in California, but the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said poachers can't resist the cash they can make on the black market.
"It's all about personal profit. This is not about feeding himself or his family. It's about personal profit," Fish and Wildlife Officer Patrick Foy said. He took News10 on a hunt for poachers in the wee hours of the morning. Using night vision technology, he scanned the American River outside the gates of the Nimbus Fish Hatchery for salmon poachers.
It's not just salmon, though.
Divers poach an estimated 250,000 Abalone every year on California's coast. The value of that many abalone is estimated at $25 million.
Another expensive delicacy is poached from the Sacramento River Delta, where where one female sturgeon can hold a belly full of eggs worth more than $30,000. Processed sturgeon eggs have been compared to Beluga; the most expensive type of caviar.
"These guys are getting $80 to $100 an ounce," Foy said. "That's a lot of money, and if you look at the amount of eggs a single female fish can produce you are talking about a huge lucrative market and an incentive to poach sturgeon."
Fish and Wildlife wardens described 41-year-old Nikolay Krasnodemsky of Sacramento as a prolific poacher. Krasnodemsky and another man were arrested in 2013 after they poached 18 sturgeon in just 10 days. When game wardens raided their homes they found dead fish stuffed into garbage bags in a garage and more than 30 pounds of sturgeon eggs ready to process into caviar. The men were convicted of six poaching violations and two counts of conspiracy.
With so much on the line wardens are out night and day looking for poachers and checking licenses to protect these valuable resources for everyone.
"If left unchecked it will bring that population down noticeably to the point where we're going to lose it for everybody," Foy said.
Foy said game wardens are sometimes frustrated by the light sentences poachers often get, but the penalties for these prolific poachers can be significant. The state normally confiscates all of their fishing gear, boats and trucks used to commit the crimes.
That was the case with Krasnodemskiy. He also faces up to five years in prison after being convicted of the conspiracy charges.
