4 Citrus County, FL residents charged with stone crab violations in Big Bend area
Officers aboard the FWC offshore patrol vessel, Fin Cat, and the FWC aviation unit were conducting a joint operation to monitor for stone crab vessels fishing in the closed stone crab and shrimping zones in the Big Bend.
The FWC aviation crew advised the marine unit that they had viewed a stone crab vessel in closed Zone 2. The stone crab vessel began making circles in the area so those onboard could retrieve their traps from the bottom, actively fishing their traps in a closed area, according to the press release.
“When the vessel crew of the Nauti Crab noticed our patrol vessel headed toward them, the crew dropped all of the stone crab gear to the bottom,” said FWC Lt. Scott Smith. "The captain stated they had broken down and just fixed their vessel. They insisted they had not been crabbing in that area. All crew members were wearing ‘slickers,’ a common practice when working stone crab traps. There were also boxes of bait all over the deck of the vessel. They were using a long line gear setup, with sixty to eighty traps all connected on one line, underwater, and invisible to the eye. Each line should be marked by a buoy; however, not a single line we located was marked.”
FWC officers documented the evidence and followed the stone crab vessel back into its home port of Hernando Beach. The vessel’s GPS units along with drugs and paraphernalia were seized and placed into evidence. FWC officers later returned to the location of the GPS coordinates, where the crew had stopped working, and dragging a grapple behind the patrol vessel, officers located 57 stone crab traps. Officers continued to discover traps in the closed zone, where more than 525 traps have been documented, all belonging to the vessel captain. This investigation is ongoing.
The men arrested included Andrew Bertine, 54, of Lecanto, FL; Matthew Bransfield, 40, of Citrus Springs, FL; and Scott Lefke, 53, and George Boynton, 48, both of Homosassa, FL. They were transported to the Citrus County Detention Facility in Lecanto, Florida, charged with ten misdemeanors and two felonies in relations to the following offenses: possession of undersized stone crab claws, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and no aerial display of stone crab numbers or buoy.