Death of A Whooper Chick in St Charles Bay

It was the saddest news, a whooper chick was shot and killed by a duck hunter in St Charles Bay. I am sure it was one of the whoopers that we saw when we canoed the bay this past January. His excuse was that he didn't know the area was closed to sand hill crane hunting, "No one told me", he is quoted as saying in the Corpus Christi Times.
Apparently he never saw the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge signs that ring the shore along the bay(Duck hunting blinds ring the shore of St Charles Bay). Apparently he never saw the parents that always fly with their first year young. Never mind that by JANUARY THEY ARE STARTING TO LOSE THEIR GREY PLUMAGE AND REPLACING IT WITH THEIR ADULT WHITE COLORS.

What bothers me most is not that the excuse was accepted by the federal magistrate in Dallas, (oh did you know the hunter is from Dallas), What bothers me the most is that the federal and state authorities removed all information from their websites before the trial.
So he got off with a fifteen thousand dollar fine and two years of hunting privileges,(A South Dakota man was fined eighty five thousand dollars and lost his hunting and fishing rights for five years).
There is so much I don't know about it all. We have only been watching the whoopers of St Charles Bay for the past five years. I am not anti hunting as I am a hunter and I have hunted all my life. I do know that Texas has a booklet of rules and regulations that I read before I go out into the field. Perhaps the man doesn't know how to read.  Like I said, I don't know.  All I do know is that there is one less whooper chick flying in the clear skies of St Charles Bay...........................