Marathon man caught with over the limit lobster

A Marathon man was arrested early today after he was caught making multiple trips out on the water to bully net for lobster.

Deputies Matthew Cory and Orey Swilley were on patrol in the early morning hours in Marathon, keeping an eye out for violators during the beginning hours of the sport lobster season. They were conducting resource violation checks at the 33rdStreet boat ramp at 2:30 a.m. when they received information about a man making multiple trips to land with lobster from his boat, which was located off the gulf side at the north end of Marathon.

The deputies 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. After an observation period, the deputies, assisted by an officer from the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, stopped the man, identifying him as 78 year old Nicolas Moreira. When they asked him how many lobster he had, he said one. He indeed had one undersized lobster in his boat at the time.  They then checked the trap they had seen him placing lobster in, finding 32 more live lobster which were measured and returned to the water.

Moreira was charged with possession of one undersized lobster and with possession of over the limit lobster. He was taken to jail.

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