Poachers removing hundreds of animals from waters on Anna Maria Island, boat captains say
BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. - Boat captains on Anna Maria Island said poachers are turning the water into a free-for-all, removing hundreds of living animals from their habitat at a time.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued several citations earlier this month, but captains said more action is needed.
Katie Tupin with Katie Scarlett Boat Tours said she continues to find people poaching wildlife, even after FWC cited six people with 18 criminal citation for illegally harvesting sea life.
The FWC says people are illegally harvesting sea life. Courtesy: Katie Tupin
"Some of these people coming out are just relentless," Tupin said.
Since those incidents, she’s seen people take hundreds of creatures out of the water, including whelks, clams and conch.
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"They were ripping them out of the shells, bagging everything up, and they even went as far as burying the shells," she said.
On Tuesday night, FWC said they received calls and an officer observed subjects taking marine life near Longboat Pass. The officer conducted a resource inspection and revealed the possession of numerous marine life species including lightning whelk, hard clams, tulip snails and fighting conchs.
Eight different species had to be returned to waters in Florida. Courtesy: FWC
The captain of the vessel received two criminal citations for the harvest of more than two live shellfish per species, per day in Manatee County and the harvest of more than 20 individuals per day of tropical marine life species.
In total, eight different species and over 250 total organisms were returned alive to the waters of the state as a result of the inspections.
"There’s a huge difference in responsible harvesting versus coming out here and wiping whole areas completely out, just out clean," Tupin said.
She has created the Facebook page, Voices for Sarasota Bay, to relay information.
Katie Tupin started a Facebook group to relay information.
On Thursday morning, a single FWC officer patrolled the area. Captain Joey Sweet with Sweets Sunset and Dolphin Tours is concerned it’s not enough.
"I see the staffing issue as a wide open door right now for some of these people," he said.
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Sweet said the problem is evident, and it happens more often than not.
"Two in the books being back to back like this in a couple of weeks, I think it does show the magnitude of how large this is," he said.
The FWC said they take potential resource violations very seriously and encourages the public to report them by calling the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922. Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward.