How did he rack up 71 charges? He caught undersized lobsters in the Keys, police said

A Hialeah commercial fisherman was jailed after fish and wildlife police said he had 78 lobster tails and a few whole live lobsters on his vessel docked on Stock Island.

Of the 78 tails, 67 were undersized.

Also on the vessel were three whole live undersized lobsters, officers said.

Yoanky Hernandez, 38, was arrested on 71 misdemeanor charges of violating fish and wildlife laws.

Hernandez admitted to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers that everything onboard belonged to him and that he wasn’t going to sell them, fish and wildlife officials said.

Instead, Hernandez said he was going to throw a party for his family and give the lobster tails to them, said FWC spokesman Bobby Dube.

As for the three live lobsters, Hernandez said he had forgotten to throw them back into the water, police said.

Florida law requires that all lobster be taken to land with their heads and tails intact. All tails must measure a minimum of five and a half inches.

At 6:19 p.m. Dec. 27, FWC officers conducted a “resource inspection” on the commercial vessel, which was docked at Fishbusterz seafood market, 6406 Maloney Ave. on Stock Island.

Officers immediately noticed three undersized lobsters on the deck. Undersized lobsters must be returned to the ocean before a vessel docks.

The wrung tails were found inside a hatch that contained equipment and bags. Inside a yellow pair of slickers, police found a large black garbage bag filled with the wrung tails.

This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 3:13 PM.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.