“Quit throwing fish!” — FWC catches anglers in the act during offshore inspection

Two anglers fishing in federal waters off Florida drew immediate attention from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers when one of them tossed a red snapper overboard just as law enforcement approached with emergency lights activated.

Bodycam footage published by Arrest Cam shows the officers arriving alongside the small fishing vessel in the Gulf and immediately ordering the anglers to stop throwing fish overboard.

“Hey, hey, quit throwing fish,” one officer shouted as the boats came together.

According to the channel’s host, the incident eventually led officers to document several potential federal fishing violations, including possession of red snapper during a closed season, an undersized red grouper, an out-of-season greater amberjack and fish that had already been filleted while the men were still actively fishing.

Officers Arrive As A Fish Goes Overboard

The inspection began badly for the anglers before an officer even stepped aboard.

One fisherman acknowledged throwing a fish back but said he had just caught it.

The officer told him that regardless of when the fish had been caught, throwing it overboard as law enforcement approached created a serious problem.

“Don’t do that when somebody’s pulling up,” he said.

The officer also warned them to leave any additional fish on the deck until the inspection was completed, explaining later that discarding fish during an active inspection could create another issue involving failure to allow officers to properly inspect the catch.

One angler claimed he had not noticed the flashing blue lights and said he had simply been tossing the fish back.

The timing, however, understandably caught the officers’ attention. Throwing a fish overboard at the exact moment wildlife officers arrive is going to look suspicious even if the angler insists there was an innocent explanation.

A Measurement Raises Questions

Once aboard, officers began checking the fish one by one.

The anglers told them they had red grouper, but one of the fish appeared shorter than the legal size.

“That one was 20. It shrunk,” one fisherman said, insisting they had measured it previously.

The discussion later turned to the measuring surface on the boat, with officers acknowledging that some deck-mounted rulers can be inaccurate or can change slightly over time.

One officer compared measurements and eventually found the disputed fish was roughly an inch short using his equipment.

He still told the anglers that the short grouper was “the least of y’all’s worries” compared with everything else officers had found.

That part of the inspection is interesting because it shows why relying on a permanent ruler attached to a boat deck can be risky. Even a small measurement error can matter when a fish is sitting right on the legal minimum.

Fillets On Board Become A Bigger Problem

The inspection became more serious when officers noticed bags containing fish that had already been cut into fillets.

The anglers initially said the fillets came from fish caught the previous day and explained that they had simply iced them again before returning offshore.

An officer told them that explanation did not solve the problem.

“You cannot have fillets on board your boat while you’re fishing,” he said.

He explained that fish generally need to remain intact while anglers are still on the water so officers can identify the species and verify size and possession limits.

The officer also pointed out the obvious enforcement problem created by carrying yesterday’s fillets aboard during another fishing trip.

“What that looks like is that you’ve been catching fish and you filleted fish out here,” he told them, while acknowledging that might not actually be what happened.

One fisherman responded that he could understand why officers would see it that way.

This was where a situation that began with one fish being thrown overboard developed into a much broader inspection. Once the fish had been cut apart, officers could no longer easily determine what had been caught, when it had been caught or whether every fish had originally been legal.

Anglers Change Their Description Of The Catch

Officers then began asking exactly what was inside the bags.

At first, the fishermen described some of the catch as red grouper and suggested one fish was a lesser amberjack.

The officers were skeptical.

One told them they were unlikely to catch a lesser amberjack in that location and said the fish was more likely a juvenile greater amberjack.

Later, when officers again asked what was in the bag, the anglers acknowledged that much of it was actually snapper.

“It’s pretty much all snapper,” one fisherman said.

An officer urged them to be straightforward about the contents.

“We’re already to the point now where it’s going to be better if you just be honest,” he said.

The officers explained that fish tissue could be sent to a laboratory for identification, but doing so could eventually create additional costs if testing became necessary.

They also read the anglers their rights before asking whether they wanted to provide statements about what species were inside the bags.

That progression made the inspection more difficult for the fishermen because their first descriptions did not appear to match what officers later believed they were seeing. Even when a violation is accidental, changing explanations can make an already complicated encounter look worse.

Federal Waters Change How The Case Is Handled

The officers explained that the vessel was in federal waters, meaning they would not simply issue normal state citations at the scene.

Instead, they planned to document the observed violations and send the case to federal authorities for review.

“We have a federal officer on board, but we will be documenting everything federally,” one officer told the anglers.

He explained that NOAA would later contact them and decide how to proceed, a process that could take anywhere from weeks to several months depending on the agency’s workload.

The fishermen were asked to sign paperwork acknowledging receipt of the documents, with the officer stressing that signing was not an admission of guilt.

The Arrest Cam host later said that because the violations occurred in federal waters, the channel did not have access to the same kind of state court records it normally uses to follow cases.

Instead, the host relied on the officer’s report to describe the potential violations.

Report Lists Several Possible Charges

According to Arrest Cam, the officer’s report listed potential charges including possession of an undersized red grouper, possession of an out-of-season greater amberjack, two counts involving finfish that were not intact and possession of red snapper during a closed season within the Exclusive Economic Zone.

The channel explained that the EEZ generally extends as far as 200 nautical miles offshore, although distances can be shorter in certain areas.

The host also cited NOAA’s fine schedule, saying a first red snapper violation carries a base fine of $500 plus another $50 for each fish.

Because several other alleged violations were also documented, Arrest Cam estimated the anglers could potentially have faced total penalties closer to $1,000, although the channel did not have records showing what federal authorities ultimately decided.

Officers also found minor boating-safety issues involving a horn and flares, but those were handled with warnings.

Inspection Ends More Calmly Than It Began

Despite the tense start, the encounter ended on a relatively calm note.

The officers thanked the anglers for cooperating and reminded them to get unwanted reef fish back into the water quickly.

Arrest Cam’s host also explained that anglers fishing offshore for reef species are required to carry a descending device or venting tool, with the descending device rigged and ready for use, because fish brought rapidly from deep water can suffer barotrauma and may die if simply tossed back at the surface.

By the time the officers left, the anglers were not being taken into custody and had not been handed ordinary state citations, but their catch had generated a federal report containing several possible violations.

What began with the shouted warning, “Quit throwing fish,” turned into a much more detailed lesson about offshore fishing rules, from keeping fish intact to knowing the season, measuring accurately and understanding that once wildlife officers arrive, throwing anything overboard is likely to make the situation much harder to explain.