Aaron Newman, a Humboldt Bay Harbor District commissioner, prominent commercial fisherman and lifelong local, was arrested on Saturday by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for allegedly falsifying applications for the taking of wildlife.

As first reported by the Lost Coast Outpost, Newman was booked into the Humboldt County jail on felony perjury charges.

The longtime president (and current vice-president) of the Humboldt Fishermen's Marketing Association, Newman was a member of the Marine Life Protection Act stakeholder group here on the North Coast. In an applying for that position (to the very agency that arrested him), Newman wrote, "In addition to operating my own commercial fishing vessel since 1997, I have been a recreational fisherman and diver since I was old enough to hold a fishing rod."

Calls to Newman were not immediately returned.