2.5 hours into mini-season, the first lobster arrest

Well, that didn’t take long.

The 2017 two-day lobster mini-season got underway at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday and just two and a half hours later, the first resource arrest for the sport diving days in the Florida Keys occurred.

Nicolas Moreira, 78, of Marathon, who lists his occupation as a fisherman, was charged around 2:30 a.m. with possession of one undersized lobster and possession of over-the-limit lobster. He reportedly had 33 live lobster, far beyond the limit of six per person per day.

He was arrested at the 33rd Street boat ramp in Marathon after two Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies watched him make “several trips to shore with lobster,” agency spokeswoman Becky Herrin said. He was reportedly bully-netting, a night-fishing technique using a spotlight and long-handled net to catch lobster on the bottom.

Herrin said deputies Matthew Cory and Orey Swilley were on patrol keeping an eye out for violators during the beginning hours of the sport lobster season and were conducting resource-violation checks.

They “received information about a man making multiple trips to land with lobster from his boat,” which was found off the bayside. Cory and Swilley “could see the boat from shore and watched him as he made several trips to shore with lobster, putting them in black wire trap in shallow water just offshore near a trap yard,” Herrin said

After watching for awhile, the deputies, helped by an officer from the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, moved in and made the arrest. Moreira was taken to jail.

This story was originally published July 26, 2017 at 9:35 AM with the headline "2.5 hours into mini-season, the first lobster arrest."