A Juneau man convicted of numerous hunting and fishing violations during the past 24 years has been found guilty on eight additional charges in a commercial fishing case dating back more than five years.
Michael Duby, 51, whose previous cases include killing federally protected birds and an illegal bear baiting station, was convicted by a jury Jan. 8 on four felonies and four misdemeanors involving his commercial fishing company. Charges involved illegal catching and selling fish, falsifying fish tickets, and selling clams without a permit and the required tests for potentially lethal toxins.
The violations occurred in 2019 and 2020, and he was represented by three different attorneys in the case before deciding to represent himself. He is scheduled for sentencing May 15.
Duby, in an interview while the jury was in deliberations, said his decision to continue fishing despite receiving harsh punishment for previous wildlife offenses was an act of passion.
“My sport fishing rights were taken away, and I was never able to do that, but fishing is my passion, and I was still allowed to commercial fish,” he said. “So I studied the commercial fishing regulations extensively, for, I don't know, five or six years before I could do it, and I felt that this was a means where I could easily follow these rules. It’s very complicated, but this is very doable, and I felt that long as I'd be very careful, I wouldn't get myself into this situation again. Obviously, that didn't happen.”
Duby’s criminal record includes convictions in federal and state courts.
In 2002, he was found guilty of unlawfully hunting game birds in Washington state. In 2012, he was convicted in federal court for killing and hunting black-billed magpies, a species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, after a two-year investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The same day, he was convicted in Alaska state court for six misdemeanor charges related to establishing a black bear bait station without a permit, unlawful transportation of game, false application of a hunting license, sport fish guide violations and falsifying guide reporting requirements. He was sentenced to nine months in prison and fined nearly $44,000. According to statements by prosecutors at the time, the penalties for Duby were among the more extreme for fish and game violations.
In 2018, Duby pled guilty to unlawful retention of undersized king salmon in Sitka.
The most recent case was sparked in 2018 by a review of Duby’s commercial fish tickets at two seafood processors, Alaska State Wildlife Trooper Jacob Abbott testified during the trial. Abbott suspected Duby had falsified catch totals and that investigation culminated in his pleading guilty to two non-criminal fishing violations in September 2018, according to court records.
Further violations were discovered by Abbott involving Duby and his wife, Esther, in 2019 and 2020, according to prosecutors. The officer contacted the couple on their commercial fishing vessel in the Pacific Cod Fishery in April 2019, and testified he observed them with an abnormal amount of bycatch rockfish.
Abbott later obtained Michael Duby’s logbooks for the season and noticed discrepancies. According to the prosecution, at this time Abbott could have charged Michael Duby with counts related to misrepresenting his catch on his fishing ticket but chose to continue the investigation in search of more criminal activity.
The officer’s investigation of the Dubys included warrant searches of Michael Duby, and his associates’ home, phone and business records. Abbott also recorded 1,440 hours of surveillance video footage outside the Dubys’ residence in Juneau from a camera mounted on a utility pole across the street. The evidence was largely responsible for Michael Duby's conviction on Jan. 8.
The jury convicted Michael Duby of two state misdemeanors associated with selling personal-use fish and commercially taking demersal shelf rockfish in the Eastern Gulf of Alaska out of season.
In addition, he was found guilty of falsifying fish tickets. He sold fish through his company, Genesis Seafoods, and the false reports on these records resulted in three class felony charges for falsifying business records.
The jury also found him guilty of commercially harvesting clams without a permit and guilty of reckless endangerment for selling clams that were not tested for possibly lethal illnesses like paralytic shellfish poisoning.
Esther Duby, a state Department of Fish and Game operations manager, was indicted as an accomplice for commercially selling fish taken for personal use, and selling clams without a commercial permit, and reckless endangerment. She was acquitted of all offenses.
In an interview just after closing arguments, Esther Duby described how the past five years of litigation had impacted her family. “It’s been horrible,” she said. “It’s been overwhelming for our family. It’s been really hard.”
Michael Duby, in referring to representing himself at trial, said the case “pretty much cost me everything that I had.”
