Local captains say they are fighting against a flood of poaching in Sarasota Bay.
Tour boat operators have contributed witness accounts, photographs and video leading the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to cite at least four people for alleged illegal harvest of shellfish from the bay since July 1.
But the boat captains say the pillaging continues.
The captains — Capt. Kathe Fannon of Captain Kathe and First Mate Pup-Pup charters of Cortez, Capt. Katie of Captain Katie Scarlett Boat Tours of Cortez, Capt. Joey Sweet of Sweet Sunsets and Dolphin Tours out of Anna Maria and Capt. Bruce Adamo of Passage Key Dolphin Tours of Anna Maria — have been working for several months to document multiple groups— some comprised of up to 60 people — poaching sea life from the bay’s sandbars and grass flats.
The captains say the poachers are focused on collecting edible shellfish, including whelks, clams, pen shells and sea urchins.
After the FWC issued citations in July, Tupin and Sweet said they saw the same boats and people in the bay a few days later.
Tupin said the citations didn’t stop the poachers but, she noted, they seemed to be working faster, using metal rakes to pull shellfish from the flats.
“About two or three nights ago, we saw people raking and digging up the seagrass up there at the South Coquina ramp,” Tupin said in an Aug. 17 interview with The Islander.
She said she called an FWC hotline but was told the nearest enforcement boat was more than an hour away.
The poachers drove away with bags full of sea life, according to Tupin.
She and Sweet also told The Islander that since the beginning of August they’d each witnessed at least six poaching incidents. All were reported to the FWC but the offenders got away with what Tupin estimated to be hundreds of live shellfish and other marine life.
Both captains expressed the need for conservation organizations to help report illegal harvests of marine life, as well as monitor poaching.
They may get their wish.
Suncoast Waterkeepers is patrolling Sarasota Bay in a newly acquired boat to monitor pollution and mangroves.
Abbey Tyrna, executive director for the nonprofit, told The Islander Aug. 16 that the group might consider a possible course of action regarding poaching.
“We will put it on the agenda for our public board meeting and what would be the actions that we can take toward ensuring the protection of our bays for clean water,” she said. “All of the life in the bay is instrumental to the ecosystem. We will definitely be bringing up this issue at our next board meeting and hopefully lending a hand using our boat patrol program.”
Suncoast Waterkeepers will meet next Aug. 30.
On Aug. 16, the FWC responded to The Islander’s request for comment by email: “The FWC’s Division of Law Enforcement is proactively working to regulate this ongoing concern by focusing targeted efforts through high visibility and covert patrols in this area.”
Fish and Game law enforcement is severely lacking all over the country. With all the witnesses and reports to FWC you would think they would turn their attention to these crimes.