Local Fish and Wildlife cops star in Animal Planet reality show

Crouched on a dock near Shilshole Bay Marina in Ballard, Sgt. Erik Olson was conducting no ordinary stakeout. This was a crab pot stakeout meant to snare culprits baiting pots illegally, out of season, and during the months when crab are supposed to be left alone to repopulate.

As the minutes ticked on, there was no sign of the owner of the pots.

“Being a Fish and Wildlife officer, you gotta be patient,” Olson laughed.

Olson is one of the officers featured on Animal Planet’s “Rugged Justice.” The show follows the work of Washington State’s Fish and Wildlife officers. The production company, Shark Teeth Films, will begin filming season two on April 25 in King and Snohomish counties.

Olson has been with the Fish and Wildlife police for over 10 years. He supervises the Central Puget Sound Marine Detachment, a region stretching from just north of Camano Island to south of the Narrows Bridge.

A reality show crew followed Olson and his colleagues last year, filming five episodes as they enforced state game and fishing laws.

That work can be unpredictable. Fish and Wildlife officers are fully commissioned general law enforcement authorities, which means they can do everything from making traffic stops to cracking down on felony criminal activity.

On a recent Seattle night, Sgt. Olson approached a man crabbing illegally.

The suspect had no picture identification and used a fake name. When Olson arrested him, the backpack he carried was filled with stolen checks and credit cards.

“At the end of that investigation, I filed 108 counts of identity theft and eight counts of money laundering,” Olson explained. “And it all started from a guy that was just crabbing closed season off a pier.”

Sgt. Olson admitted, during the first season’s taping, it was an adjustment to make his rounds with an 8-10 person film crew following his every move.

Undercover activities were pretty much out of the question.

“It’s a little difficult when you have a guy with a 100-pound sound pack, a big camera, and a boom mic,” Olson said.

When he was first chosen for “Rugged Justice,” Sgt. Olson had reservations about joining the likes of “Survivor” contestants and Kim Kardashian &#8212 people living their lives in public and open to the scrutiny that comes from reality TV.

“You want people to see what you do, but maybe you’re not going to come across that while the cameras are there,” Olson said.

He wasn’t sure people would watch. Olson said there are plenty of parts of his job that never make the final reality show cut.

“I know you’re going to be shocked to hear this, but ‘Rugged Justice’ does not want to film me sitting in the office for two days writing paperwork,” Olson joked.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife hopes its participation in “Rugged Justice” raises awareness for officers’ work protecting our state’s natural resources.

The show has already attracted elevated interest from potential recruiting candidates looking at a career in law enforcement.

“It’s great to see people want to do this job because I love it. I love sharing the experience of this job and how cool it is,” Olson said.

Olson notes that most Fish and Wildlife officers are, themselves, fishermen or hunters.

“They are people who really enjoy the resource and the outdoors and they want to see it protected,” he said.

That’s a level of dedication I experienced firsthand, spending hours watching a popular fishing spot along the Elliot Bay Trail.

That’s where, using binoculars, we spotted a fisherman putting his gear in the water.

It appeared to be someone getting a jump on the lingcod season. The bottom-dwelling Puget Sound lingcod can’t be fished until May 1.

As we waited, Sgt. Olson observed the fisherman’s gear with a trained eye.

“If you’re fishing [here] with hook and line, you’re going to catch lingcod or you’re going to catch rockfish,” he explained.

But instead of a ticket, this stop turned into a teaching moment.

The fisherman was unaware that several species of the Puget Sound rockfish are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

“I’m glad I caught you then, before you ended up catching a rockfish,” Olson said.

This kind of work by Sgt. Olson and other Fish and Wildlife officers might not make it into a reality show, but it is part of the vital management and enforcement efforts that protect the future of fishing and hunting for our region.