SC commercial fisherman gets prison for lying about overfishing

A 61-year-old Lowcountry commercial fisherman was given a prison sentence Tuesday for making false statements about overfishing and falsifying records about sensitive fish in a federal investigation.

Federal Judge Richard Gergel gave Don Michael Rynn, whose ships worked out of the McClellanville area, a year and a day in prison and a $7,500 fine.

Last March, a federal jury in Charleston found Rynn guilty after a three-day trial. About a dozen witnesses testified for the prosecution. Evidence included video, witnesses and experts testifying about the harm to the fishing industry caused by overfishing.

The fish Rynn was found guilty of overfishing were snowy grouper and tile fish, both considered good fish to eat and valued by restaurants.

Rynn’s public defender attorney, Brendan Daniels, had asked for a probationary sentence, citing his client’s hardscrabble but honorable life on fishing boats, his talents with machines and devotion to his children.

“Don Rynn’s life has been happy but difficult,” Daniels wrote in a memo to the judge asking for probation.

“Don is a commercial fisherman. He has been for as long as he can remember; over 40 years. He stopped attending school after completing the eighth grade. Don has worked every day he was physically able to since then.

“While Don lacks formal education, he is mechanically gifted. He has an innate understanding of machinery. As he describes it, since he was a very young child, people looked to him to fix what was broken, and he was usually able to repair their problems. This skill has been a lifelong source of pride,” Daniels wrote.

Federal prosecutors had argued for a 15-month sentence, saying in their memo to the judge that Rynn had obstructed justice by lying to investigating agents in trip records he filed with federal agencies about his overfishing and also on the witness stand at his trial.

Moreover, since the successful managing of fish populations is necessary to avoid depletion of fish species and adverse economic effects on those in the commercial fishing business, a prison sentence for people convicted of falsifying records of fish catches is necessary to show the seriousness of such crimes, federal prosecutors argued.

Probation for Rynn would send a message “that this was in fact a crime of no seriousness and would undermine respect for the country’s environmental laws, laws regarded by many as second-tier crimes that are more nuisance than necessary. To begin to effect change, Rynn must go to prison,” prosecutors argued in their memo.

In June, Judge Gergel rebuffed a defense challenge to the jury verdict, ruling that there was plenty of evidence to support the verdict and that prosecutors had made proper arguments to the jury.

The case had originated in 2023 with a tip to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

Federal prosecutors in the case were Winston Holliday and Amy Bower.

The case was investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the U.S. Coast Guard, the DNR and the DNR Saltwater Team.

This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 5:30 AM.