Busy Lobster Sport Season Wrap Up
Monroe County Sherriff's Office Report

Posted Thursday, July 26, 2007

 
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The Sheriff’s Office wrapped up its water and land patrol of the two day sport lobster season at midnight, handling one dive related death and no other major incidents for the season. Deputies on boats in cars and on jet skis patrolled countywide keeping an eye out for marine violations of all kinds.

The numbers so far:

Marathon Sheriff’s deputies patrolled their area waters on two waverunners, a Sheriff’s Office boat and a jet boat. The waverunners and the jet boat are both donated to the Sheriff’s Office by the local Riva Yamaha dealership in Marathon. Deputies in that area stopped approximately 800 boats over two days. Most stops were routine and did not result in any citations for violations; Deputies did issue 15 notices to appear in court, which carried a total of $4,885.00 in fines; those NTAs included one for possession of egg bearing female lobster, and 14 for possessing undersized lobster. They issued 5 warnings – one warning was for possessing a Queen Conch which had just been taken and was immediately returned to the water. The jet boat was used to patrol at night and 200 of the boat stops were boats participating in bully netting.

In the lower Keys, deputies on the water stopped approximately 70 boats; out of those stops, 10 had minor violations of one or two lobster over limit or short lobster; the lobster were returned to the water and warnings were issued. Another 10 warnings were given for equipment violations.

In Sector 7 (Tavernier to Key Largo), Deputies on the water stopped 95 boats, issuing six notices to appear in court for various violations, three boating citations, 11 written warnings and eight verbal warnings. On land in Sector 7, deputies issued six notices to appear in court for various violations.

Islamorada Sheriff's Office stats for sport lobster season Vessel stops = 104 Written warnings = 16 Uniform boating citations issued = 3 Criminal conservation citations issued re undersized = 4 Illegal lobster returned alive = 18.