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Photographer Could Face Year in Jail and $100,000 Fine for Violating Endangered Species Act

Chris Gampat
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03/13/2014
1 Min read
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Last Updated on 03/13/2014 by Chris Gampat

Screen Shot 2014-03-13 at 9.18.03 AM

Though it has been known for years that photographers often try to interfere with a scene to capture wildlife, it’s a whole different problem when it involves the Endangered Species Act. According to WESH, photographer Jim Neiger who heads up Flight School Photography could be facing a year long prison sentence or a $100,000 fine of some sort. Jim is being charged with troubling the nests of Snail Kites–which are a type of raptor bird. Specifically, the bird has been endangered as of 1967 due to its super specific diet of Apple Snails according to Everglades National Park.

To take pictures of the birds, he would allegedly get closer to the nests than you’re legally allowed to. People on his boat or Jim himself would then photograph the birds.

Jim is otherwise a very well known bird photographer–with folks praising him and the DPReview forums interested in his work.

A full video story is after the jump.

bird photography endangered species act fine Jim Neiger Photography snail kites
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.