4 arrested for stone crab fishing violations

“When the vessel crew of the ‘Nauti Crab’ noticed our patrol vessel headed toward them, the crew dropped all of the stone crab gear to the bottom,” Lt. Scott Smith said. “The captain stated they had broken down and just fixed their vessel. They insisted they had not been crabbing in that area.” “They were using a long line gear setup, with 60 to 80 traps all connected on one line underwater and invisible to the eye,” Smith said. “Each line should be marked by a buoy; however, not a single line we located was marked.” Officers documented the evidence and followed the Nauti Crab vessel back to its home port of Hernando Beach where authorities seized the boat’s GPS units along with drugs and paraphernalia for evidence. >click to read< 11:55

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