LOGIC AND SHORT LOBSTERS

Everyone loves a good conspiracy. Consider the industry that has grown up around doubt over the official explanation of JFK’s assassination or the “evidence,” mostly on the Internet, that the United States destroyed the World Trade Center. But, when it comes to the state’s former head warden caught with short lobsters, Occam’s razor provides the most likely explanation.

William of Occam, a 14th century English logician and Franciscan friar, advised that whenever there are multiple explanations for a phenomenon it is best to shave away the complicated and keep the one that requires the fewest assumptions.

Last October, Tom Santaguida, then the head of the Maine Warden Service and a part-time lobsterman, was found to have among his catch nine lobsters that were smaller than the minimum legal size. Mr. Santaguida said he was shocked by the presence of short lobsters, saying he was always very careful.

He and others wonder if the small lobsters could have been put into his traps or holding tank to get him in trouble.

Using Occam’s theory, the report from Robert Beal, the Marine Patrol officer who handled the Santaguida case, contains the most likely explanation.

Officer Beal wrote: “A number of times as Tom measured the short lobsters using both of his lobster measures I pointed out that the top of the lobster measure was up above the rear of the eye socket creating an inaccurate measurement.”

Mr. Santaguida said he had been lobstering for 35 years and had always measured them that way and had never had a problem in the past.

Mr. Santaguida is also apparently upset because he thought he would only get a warning for the incident. Instead he pleaded guilty, paid a fine and resigned from the warden service.

It should be expected that such a violation by someone sworn to uphold the state’s natural resources laws would get close scrutiny within the Department of Marine Resources and that a warning would likely be insufficient because it would be viewed by the public as favoritism.

E-mail messages show that members of the Marine Patrol and Department of Marine Resources wrestled with how to handle the situation. Some suggested Mr. Santaguida made a mistake and should be given a warning because he didn’t intend to violate the law.

Others disagreed.

“This is a case that has no room for ‘professional courtesy.’ This is a violation of the core values that we work for every day – in both departments – ‘protecting Maine’s natural resources,'” wrote John Fetterman, a Marine Patrol major. This view prevailed, as it should have.

Roland “Danny” Martin, commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, played the Occam role in this story. It is, he said, about someone who went lobstering on his day off, got caught with short lobsters, was summoned, paid a fine and is no longer with IF&W. End of story.