A busy holiday weekend on the Florida Keys waters resulted in several people receiving tickets for catching undersized fish.
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation reports that officers Jason Richards, Jeremy Foell and Daniel Jones were on a federal fisheries patrol on July 1 between Key West and Dry Tortugas National Park. During their patrol, they saw a 52-foot Viking called the “Shakedown” out of Boca Raton stationed inside the Warsaw Hole Spawning Special Management Zone, which is closed to fishing for snapper and grouper.
Officers conducted an inspection of the vessel and found the crew in possession of out-of-season red snapper and six undersized dolphins. Officers issued federal citations for fishing inside the Warsaw SMZ, out-of-season red snapper and the undersized dolphins.
On July 3, FWC investigator Chris Mattson, Maj. Albert Maza and officer Waymen Pearson were patrolling the water not far from MM 78 in Islamorada when they spotted four men fishing from the bank at Indian Key Channel Bridge. The officers went over to conduct an inspection of the group from Miami when Mattson asked to inspect their cooler. Mattson discovered three undersized schoolmaster snapper and one undersized black grouper. After questioning, one of the men in the group admitted catching all the undersized fish. He was cited for two misdemeanor violations.
On July 3, FWC officer Courtney Carroll was performing fisheries inspections around 5 p.m. on the north end of Channel 5 bridge in Islamorada. During her inspection, she found two Miami men with 20 undersized snappers. The undersized catches consisted of one undersized mutton snapper, one undersized yellowtail snapper and 18 undersized schoolmaster snapper. Carroll issued both men a “Notice to Appear” in court for the violations.
