Patrolling Lake Erie

SANDUSKY — With a great lake, comes a great responsibility. Brian Baker and Kelsey Brockman work for the Ohio Division of Wildlife's Lake Erie Law Enforcement Unit. Baker is a wildlife officer and Brockman is an investigator. The pair, along with several others in the unit, enforce fishing regulations on the lake. With Lake Erie being a popular tourist destination, it's important for regulations to be followed. Enforcement ensures the fishery thrives. In addition to working on the lake, Baker and Brockman work on shore, especially when lake conditions are not ideal. "There's always plenty to do from the shoreline with boats coming in," Baker said. Finding the career Baker knew from an early age that he wanted to be a wildlife officer. He remembered backpacking through the Adirondack Mountains in junior high and stopping in a bookstore. Baker said there was a magazine with two federal agents on the cover. It appeared they made a case with overbagged ducks. "That's what I want to do," Baker said referring to the job. "I kept that with me all through schooling." With Brockman, however, she kind of stumbled into the job. "I always liked being outside in nature, but I didn't really do any hunting. I did do some fishing growing up," Brockman said. While attending Ohio State University, she took a natural resources and law enforcement class. Jim Quinlivan, a law enforcement program administrator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, visited the class and gave a presentation. Brockman asked Quinlivan about how many female officers the division had at the time. She remembers him saying, "Four, and you can be the fifth." "I took that as a challenge," Brockman said. There was conveniently an opening when Brockman applied, and she was selected. "I fell in love with the job," she said. A career in wildlife Baker, who is from the Fremont area, has spent 24 years with the Ohio Division of Wildlife. It's the kind of job he plans on having until he retires. Baker first started working in the Lake Erie unit. Then he was a wildlife officer in Miami County for three years and then Belmont County for almost 18 years. He was constantly busy. There was always something going on and he received tons of phone calls. "The county kind of ran you," Baker said. After his time as a wildlife officer inland, he returned to the Lake Erie unit. While the Lake Erie unit has less phone calls, it has more face to face interactions. "I enjoy talking to the people and making contacts," Baker said. "I'm a fisherman, even though I haven't done much here. There's always something different to do." Like many wildlife officers, Baker's hobbies include hunting and fishing. He's especially knowledgeable in waterfowl hunting and is one of the best officers at waterfowl identification, according to Quinlivan. "He serves on our waterfowl enforcement training team and has taught dozens of officers the skills needed to enforce waterfowl and migratory bird hunting regulations and help answer hunters' questions and provide advice," Quinlivan said. Baker takes a lot of pride in his work. "I can't see myself doing anything else," he said. "I had to go to the hills down south, but when you get out on the lake one evening and watch the sunset, it's home." In addition to hunting and fishing, Baker also spends a lot of time with his family and watching his children play sports. The job of a lifetime Brockman — who is originally from Fort Recovery, a small village in Mercer County — began her career as an at-large officer in southwest Ohio for a year. It was a temporary placement where she floated around to help in other counties where needed. Brockman became a wildlife officer in Erie County for about two and a half years before joining the Lake Erie unit. "I love it here at Lake Erie," Brockman said. "I initially thought I'd move to Erie County for a couple years and go back home, but I fell in love with the area and doing the job on the lake. I love being on the lake and driving boats." Prior to working on Lake Erie, Brockman said she had been on a boat once or twice. She'd never driven a boat. "If you asked me 10 years ago if I thought I'd be living up here or know how to drive a boat, I would have said no," she said. In her spare time, Brockman enjoys working out and spending time with family. She got more involved with hunting and fishing after accepting the wildlife officer job. After she killed her first deer, Brockman said she had a better understanding of how things work, which helps her in certain work-related situations. "There are a lot of days where I can't believe I'm being paid to do this instead of paying to do this," she said. Quinlivan called Brockman an energetic officer who is driven to work hard. "She's emerging as a leader among officers by serving as an instructor in the officer physical fitness testing program and sets a great example for others," he added. A specialized unit People from all over the country come to fish Lake Erie. The lake provides an abundance of wildlife and fisheries resources. A Lake Erie bite is second to none, Baker said. "It takes a specialized unit of wildlife enforcement officers with unique skills and equipment for us to maintain a reasonable amount of regulation compliance," said Matt Leibengood, Lake Erie law enforcement program manager. "Regulation compliance is an important part of science-based resource management. Lake Erie wildlife officers and investigators are the protectors of these valuable resources." During one instance, investigators Travis Abele and Kevin Good were conducting sport fish enforcement near Huron in June. They contacted a boat with an Illinois registration and seven people on board. The investigators checked the group for fishing licenses and discovered six of the anglers did not have an Ohio fishing license. Each violator was issued a summons for fishing without a valid Ohio nonresident fishing license. Baker and Brockman agreed that double-tripping cases are fun for them to investigate. There are people who catch their limit of fish in the morning, come back in to drop off the fish and then go back out again to catch more. "Double tripping are cases held in high regard by us," Baker said. "It's a long day." The Lake Erie unit also closely monitors commercial fishing, which is highly regulated, Quinlivan said. Through an electronic monitoring system, officers can see every commercial vessel in real-time. It's mandated by law. Officers can also see commercial fishing catch reports as they're submitted electronically and available in real-time. Those tools along with other tactics are used to monitor for law compliance. "A routine dockside check or on-the-water inspection of the commercial fishing operation typically involves the officer inspecting for size compliance and then comparing observations from the check with what is shown by the electronic systems," Quinlivan said. During the colder months, Lake Erie unit officers will help inland with various hunting seasons. And if the weather allows the formation of thick ice, they're out checking ice fishermen. The Lake Erie unit is staffed by personnel whose interests lie in working Ohio's "big water," Quinlivan said. Katie Cade, who is an administrative professional, is an integral part of the unit. She processes all the fishing guide licenses, among other responsibilities. Everyone on the team has a personal connection to the resources Lake Erie provides and that makes their work exciting and rewarding, Leibengood said.