Miami and Hollywood men arrested on lobster violation charges in the Florida Keys
Men from Miami, Hollywood and Port the St. Lucie flouted lobster and fishing laws in the Florida Keys over the weekend, according to Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Here are the details of each case:
▪ Miami’s Alejandro Acevedo, 53, had two problems, Upper Keys Deputy Jason Farr said, that got him arrested Sunday morning when Farr stopped Acevedo’s 25-foot Baylinter boat near North Sound Creek off Key Largo.
Farr said Acevedo had 15 lobsters. The daily lobster limit is six per person.
Also, each lobster must measure at least 3 inches from “the forward edge between the rostral horns, excluding any soft tissue, and proceeds along the middle to the rear edge of the carapace,” a Keys and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission release says.
Nine of Acevedo’s lobsters came in under the limit.
▪ Lower Keys Deputy Jacob Ladd was at the south end of the Bahia Honda Key Bridge around 5:30 p.m. when he says Jose Manuel Mejia Melo drop a bucket and tried to slide away.
The bucket contained three queen conch, illegal to possess when alive, and four undersized lobsters.
Mejia Melo, 57, got arrested for that and cited for having no fishing license or lobster endorsement as well as harvesting or snorkeling within 300 feet of a residential or commercial shoreline.
▪ Saturday afternoon around 4:15, Deputy Farr ran into Port St. Lucie’s Russell Lawrence at Harry Harris Park in Tavernier. Farr said Lawrence had four mangrove snappers that didn’t meet the 10-inch minimum and one mutton snapper that didn’t reach the 18-inch minimum.
Lawrence, 41, received a notice to appear in court.
