On Monday, when officers from Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) tied up to his dock on the Indian River Lagoon, Indian River Keeper Kevin Stinnette wondered if he of all people was in trouble. Perhaps the mullet in his bait pen were subject to some new rule, he wondered. Then he saw floats drifting out behind the enforcement vessel.

“They had pulled in a gillnet that someone had left out in Herman’s Bay,” said Stinnette.

The FWC officers and Stinnette spent several hours freeing live fish and burying dead ones.

“The officers had freed some of the live fish on the way over to ask if they could bury the dead fish on our beach,” said Stinnette. “But it was a big net and full of fish, most of which were putrid. The net had been out there for a long time.”

Stinnette said they cut out a 25-inch redfish that had probably been in the net only a short while, and freed a very weak slot-sized snook. There were also many dead trout, mullet, pinfish, jacks, a sand perch, a small redfish, a flounder, a couple of bonnet head sharks and many, many catfish in the net. In fact, the illegal net had killed so many fish that the officers worked into the night burying all of them.

“I asked if FWC had any idea who had set the net and it was pretty clear from their response that they didn't know. But somebody should be hung,” Stinnette said.