Three Florida Keys commercial fishermen were arrested last week after state fish and wildlife police officers say they raided other commercial anglers’ lobster traps.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers began watching the crew of the Dawn Marie last Wednesday morning after receiving reports that people were stealing from traps in the area.
Commercial fishing vessels are assigned specific colors, and the buoys attached to their trap lines are marked with those colors. According to the arrest affidavit for the three crew members, FWC officers watched the men by the Channel 5 Bridge pull multiple traps with colors not assigned to their boat.
FWC officers contacted the owners of those traps and were told the men on the boat — Daniel Brack, 36, of Tavernier, Adrian Gomez Cabezal, 32 of Miami, and Lazaro Jesus Garcia Calzada, 47, of Key Largo — did not have permission to pull the traps.
Officers followed the Dawn Marie back to its dock, where Brack, Cabezal and Calzada were arrested. Brack is the captain of the boat, and the two other men are mates, according to the arrest report.
The men are being represented by the Monroe County Public Defender’s Office, which could not immediately be reached for comment on the case. They face 65 counts each of felony trap molestation, and Judge Luis Garcia set their bond at $1,000 for each count.
They have all since been released from jail and are scheduled to appear before a judge to answer for the charges next Tuesday, Dec. 6.
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.
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