He was shooting snook off South Beach, police say. That’s not allowed
State wildlife police said they arrested a man shooting snook with a speargun near a fishing pier off Miami Beach.
The man, an 18-year-old Honduran citizen, was seen by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Daniel Gutierrez spearfishing along the jetty near the South Pointe Park fishing pier around noon last Wednesday, according to the agency.
Gutierrez stopped the man, who the agency did not name, as he walked toward the beach carrying a speargun and a cooler. The officer was going to cite him for not having a dive flag while spearfishing when the man said he had fish in the cooler, said FWC spokesman Officer Jason Rafter.
The cooler had six undersized snook that had been speared.
Snook can only be caught in Florida using hook and line. The highly-regulated fish requires both a special permit and a state recreational angling license in order to harvest.
Snook are also a “slot fish,” meaning they can be legally both too small and too big to keep — no less than 28 inches long, and not longer than 32 inches in Atlantic waters. The bag limit is one snook per person.
The commercial sale and harvest of snook is also prohibited, according to Fish and Wildlife.
The man was jailed at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges of prohibited method for catching snook, spearing snook, possession of undersized snook, spearfishing within 100 feet of a jetty and being over the daily bag limit for snook, Rafter said.
This story was originally published November 1, 2022 at 5:37 PM.
