Central Florida men pay heavy price for lobster hauls.

Daniel Webster and Garret Taynai, of the X-Stream charterboat out of New Smyrna Beach, paid $20,000 in federal fines for a recent illegal lobster harvest.

“The owner [Webster] and operator [Taynai] both violated the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Management Act by exceeding bag limits of lobster, wringing and spearing lobster, possessing egg-bearing lobster and possessing undersize lobster,” said NOAA Officer Richard Chesler.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officers boarded and inspected the X-Stream fishing vessel on Sept. 14 in the Intracoastal Waterway near New Smyrna Beach. The boat and crew were returning from a dive trip 28 miles east of Ponce Inlet. The FWC officers found 42 legal spiny lobsters and reef fish in a cooler. Officers also discovered a bucket full of 20 wrung lobster tails. Eggs had been scraped off three of the tails, one tail was speared and one was short of the legal size limit—all violations. In addition, the vessel had 20 lobsters over the legal limit.

Because the lobsters were taken farther than nine miles offshore, FWC and NOAA officials agreed to federal prosecution. As part of the penalties, Webster and Taynai are prohibited from operating their charter fishing business for 30 days.

Keys commercial fishermen arrested for lobster violations.

State wildlife investigators arrested six men on Dec. 7 for possessing undersize and wrung lobster tails on the water. The six men aboard the El Dorado fishing vessel face misdemeanor charges in addition to considerable fines for possession of 249 wrung, undersize lobsters.

An FWC investigator patrolling the commercial fishing-trap yards in Marathon observed the men unloading bags from the El Dorado vessel—suspected to contain lobster tails—onto a pickup truck. Officers on the scene searched the truck and found two bags containing 249 wrung, undersize lobster tails underneath a tool box. The men were taken into custody.

“These 249 juvenile crawfish will never have the chance to normally produce thousands of offspring before they reach their legal harvest size,” said FWC Lt. Roy Payne. “The total damage to our state’s fishing resources is immeasurable.”