Tag Archives: undersized stone crab claws
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
2 commercial fishermen convicted of trap robbing
Two commercial fishermen were convicted this week of robbing another fisherman’s stone crab traps last year. Both will face a maximum of five years in prison at sentencing, according to the State Attorney’s Office. A FWC pilot alerted FWC officers on the ground after tracking Salado’s boat, according to reports.The officers spotted the duo in the vessel March 8, 2013, on the oceanside of Ballast Key, pulling four traps with colors that did not match their vessel number. Some 25 undersized stone crab claws were found on the boat when it was boarded by FWC, reports state. Read the rest here 14:15
