recording. This body cam footage captures wildlife officers approaching a commercial fishing vessel returning from a multi-day fishing trip. Oh yeah, y'all got some big ones coming out here now. Woo! That's a good one right there. It's a big old fish box y'all got on here. The crew begins offloading their catch from a lower compartment where fish are stored on ice. I said, "How many compartments do you have down there? You got like your one big one and they go to the sides." I got two 5000s and 4,000 up front. Man, that's a bunch of fish if you load down. Yeah, it was a sword. Was it? That makes sense. Y'all checking y'all's measuring stick. Big thing is make sure that mouth closed because it's going to give you a little bit of extra too. So the way we base it is that mouth closed like that and then whatever it comes out with a pinch tip and then this one. Yeah. Yeah. I put them on our stick. I mean might be a little bit different. After measuring some of the red grouper officers find some that are undersized. So, your second one, Cap, wasn't bad. It was only about a quarter of an inch off. Your first one was way off. It was like right at 17. I'm going to be honest with you, man. Uh, this is that Scotty kids first trip. It was 10 foot. I tried to go out there and check them. I had my guy. We were throwing them up out of the hole. Like I was telling your your crew members down there too. I mean, honestly, a a handful of unders. We'll figure it out. It's a big deal to me, though. As a captain, I totally get it. I'm a nervous wreck. Seen it going in there. Right. Right. Right. We'll see how many we've got total at the end and we'll we'll make a decision off that. Well, one thing that y'all that I've noticed the crew is talking about is that measuring sticks caned a little bit. So, it's giving you some length, but it needs to be a perfect 90 L. I need what you guys have. I ordered it. I'm I'm going to show you where Oh, did you actually order it? Yeah, she my wife's getting it now. Yeah. Y'all have a pile of fish, so a handful of undersizes is better than seeing nothing but undersiz. I don't like that. The federal commercial minimum size limit for red grouper in the Gulf of Mexico is 18 in. Yeah. Either way, guys, just so you all know, depending on how we go about it. Um, if you know, either way we document it. Um, if it is a ticket, it can go federal or state. If we write it federally, actually a benefit because we don't seize your fish at all. Um, even if it's a warning, we won't take your fish. So, either way, y'all aren't losing anything today. This will go in y'all's totals whenever we get finished up. Okay. Garrett, [Music] we're writing them. Hey, they just they just came off. The crew just said it's 100 pounds of short fish on. Yep. They said that there's nothing in here. That's just on the surface. There's two that was missing there. I think those are honest misses, but that's loaded down. All of that's loaded down. What is that? I just went down an inch and found all those. I haven't even started digging. Is that shorts? I haven't measured them. They didn't claim it. They said it was in I was told that this whole thing was empty. We obviously we can work with y'all on a lot of things. I don't like being lied to at all. So, I haven't lied. I know you haven't. I'm saying that we got to figure this out cuz I don't like that. Officers find a compartment with fish that appear to have been intentionally hidden. But uh your mate told me which one that they're probably your mate said that this is just ice. There's no fish in here at all. I just had to do that to the ice and have already found that many. I don't know if they're they're short or not. I just know that there's fish there that they wouldn't be over there if they weren't they All I'm saying right now is that I just found fish that I was told that right now that just looks suspicious. Yeah. So, what we're going to do, I'm going to go grab that box that's got the fish in it. Yeah. Um, we're going to measure it on your boat. We're not going to put them up there. I'm going to bring our fish stick down here and we'll go from there. Um, Cap, I' I'd go ahead and get a hold of your mates and figure out where they put them fish at cuz I find any of them that's hidden. I'm sorry. I said we need to we need to find out which one of your guys did that cuz uh if I find any of them that besides that, interfering with our investigation. If you hide stuff from us, it's called interference. It's worse than just owning it. Yeah, that makes sense. Let's start finding what's hidden. Yeah, but why are they still on here? That's that's my question. Like I was telling like I was telling the cap, I don't like being lied to. This is a lot of extra fish. And these are legal. Like what are we worried about? Like that basket right there is going to be your legals, but the illegals are going in there. That's correct. There it is. The thing like I tell everybody, if they're short, we get it. But don't hide it from us. I I believe y'all. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Cuz the thing is is like we have the statutory authority to go in like everything in this boat. We're going to find it. I don't cuz there's a big thing that I believe in like like I trust people's words, but I verify it. And I verify it by looking. Yeah. So, is all your crew members still here, Cap? Yeah. The one throwing the that I just fired up there was responsible for this. [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] The front was loaded down. Let the captain know. Front was loaded down. Two pieces of wood was on top of the ice. Okay. So, they hit them underneath it. Yeah. I guess what I'm trying to figure out though, guys, is like why? What's the why? Well, guys, you got to think too like the whole idea of this IFQ thing is to have the allocation of poundage and if we not check the front, this would have never got documented at all. Like no would have never done this. Like we go ahead. We would wait every fish when we discovered it. But that's the point. Like it should have been offloaded during an offload. I know brother cuz it's a mistake. I get it. But there's a lot of fish on here to be a surprise like that. A lot of fish when they've been in there hidden up there. Yeah. Your dividers that y'all use the the 2x4s. So when I got up there and found them, there was all the groceries up there and then there was 2x4s laid on top of the fish with ice on top of the 2x4s laid on top of. So it's like fish 2x4 ice. [Music] The captain and owner tell officers they were unaware of the hidden fish. Please don't think that this is going to make us have a bad taste or mouth for y'all. Nothing like that. That's what I'm worried about. Yeah, it's not, man. for for us. I mean, we get it. Like things happen. I mean, we're not going to hold y'all. I mean, obviously y'all responsible, but you're responsible for the boat, but not like doing this. I get that. So, like I'm a father of four. We don't Exactly. Yes or no? No. And like this doesn't make us mad. It's just aggravating to be lied to. It's all, you know, when you say I know you did I'm saying that's what I'm saying is that like you said it's empty. Okay, we'll go check. And then it sucks that you have a crew member that's like, hey, there's more in there. Cuz that looks bad on y'all. Y'all didn't do that. You know what I mean? So that's all it is. All right. So it's uh let's get a total count. Anything in the coolers at all, guys? Any other fish anywhere? There's no other fish. I can't speak now. I don't know. I gota I gota big thing is just making sure there's no light coolers and stuff in there. Yeah, you're fine. Yeah, we'll get back with you here in a little bit. Trying to show you earlier. Yeah, cuz I was showing the end right there. The bin. Yeah, like it it's it's like a little bit curve and then it's per quart all day. Then you got the freeze factor in there and that's why we're having 17 and 15. You can tell this thing dropped something. You can tell the screw popped out. Here, let's we're going to take these to our truck, count how many we've got, and then we'll figure out where we're going to go from there, guys. Okay. There's no jail today, guys. Yeah. No, no. It's not like either way, I'm letting you know. In total, officers found 151 lbs of additional fish hidden beneath the ice and 22 fish were undized. The captain has issued two federal citations for undersized grouper and failure to disclose his catch. Further investigation revealed that a crew member did know about the undersized fish and attempted to hide them. put something over. Federal fines for undersized fish range from $50 to $500 per fish. The captain could face fines ranging from $3 to $5,000. Yes, sir. Thanks for watching.