Turbineblade, you're right about that! MD is MD! This reminds me of all the misinformation versus regulations concerning Striped Bass. After the moratorium years they reopened seasons & applied special regulations to specific areas & dates. They made suggestions about proper gear usage, but did not implement regulations at that time. There was a lot of misunderstanding & misinformation spread around. They did eventually clarify most of it, but there are still uncertainties about it at times.
With Striped Bass, even bringing an incidental, illegal fish into a boat or on to shore can be construed & defined as possession. It's happened with some over zealous NRP officers. The idea is that they want those fish released as quickly as possible, and when possible by leaving them in the water. Many of us who fly fish do this as habit, but not all anglers do so. Taking a quick photo of an illegal fish could even get an angler in trouble, because it's not considered by some as immediate release.
I had read that some similar problems arose in FL, with incidental, out of season catches. The DNR officers there were citing anglers if they removed a fish from the water, interpreting that they had reduced the fish to possession, even if it was released immediately. I recall this also had something to do with taking photo's & the amount of time it took.
Regulations are, unfortunately, always subject to interpretation. Sometimes, even intent of laws & regulations are left to interpretations that may not really follow the true intent, or it may be in this case, the regulations may not even exist at all.
