A Times Editorial

Hooked by Internet naughtiness

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 9, 2000

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regulates fishing in state waters, so it is more than a little embarrassing that some commission employees find themselves hooked and displayed, slimy and wriggling, for all to see.

The bait: Internet sites with names such as "porntrack," "sexhound" and "virtuagirl." The catch: Russell Nelson, head of the state's marine fisheries division, and others in the commission office.

Details of how Nelson and other employees used state computers during work hours to surf pornographic Web pages and e-mail naughty pictures were exposed in court documents in a suit filed by commercial fishermen against the regulatory commission. The fishermen are fighting a ban on "tarp nets" to catch bait fish.

Nelson's boss, Allan Egbert, admitted that his fisheries chief viewed pornography on state time. But Egbert called the disclosure a "smear campaign."

One can understand Egbert's outrage. The fishermen's lawyer also discovered that the hard drive on Egbert's work computer had been electronically wiped clean, suggesting destruction of public records.

"The reason I have nothing on my hard drive is I've never had anything on my hard drive," Egbert retorted in his defense.

Only in state government would an administrator proudly point out that he has done no work at the office. But at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, apparently, a blank hard drive is preferable to a floppy filled with porn.

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