Hello YouTube. If you like fish and wildlife content, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos. Officers with Florida Fish and Wildlife were on patrol when they contacted a vessel fishing in federal waters. Hey, good morning folks. Can you hear me okay? Can you guys hear me okay? Excellent. Who's the captain of the boat? All right captain, we're going to come alongside your port quarter. Actually the side that you're on and drop an officer off to a quick inspection and let you guys get back to it. Um as I make the approach, if you just keep everybody's hands from in between the two boats, I'll stay off of you. There's no reason to fend the boat off. I just don't want to pinch your hands in between the two boats. All right. Go ahead. How's it going? Oh, you get stuck? Yeah, well I'll just come like right on like your midship and just hop on and I'll grab right on that T-top right there. Ah, we're good. We're good. Yeah, I just don't want to pinch y'all. We just take you guys out of the equation so we don't pinch anybody. All right. So you got a red snapper, huh? We did and I would just put him in cuz he bit me. He just bit me. And I was like and I saw him moving around. I was like let me make sure he's alive. >> Somebody get the band aid. What's up guys? All right. So What's that? Tons. All right. Um yeah, so we're actually good on fishing licenses. Uh we'll all just start um I'll start at the back and then I'll just move forward. It's just easier to do that way. We're just looking for fish. See what you guys got and then we'll do a safety inspection and make sure you got all your gear. Appreciate the guys wearing the life jackets here. All right. We saw you guys from a distance and saw your all the color on all the all the shirts. Like that the guy in orange there. There's another guy in Is that orange? No, it's kind of like an awful orange. Okay. But I don't I don't I'm over 65 so I don't And and we're good on licenses out here. We don't check them. So we'll check them in shore like if you came in shore with fish, we check them in there but since we're out here, there's kind of like a um the way that it works with um the federal, you can either have a federal license or a state license so we just kind of just tell people just make sure you have a license. >> ask you, what is the age you can not 65 is when you no longer need a license. >> Correct. Yep. And then under uh under 16. Appreciate it. All right. So, okay. Woah, that's a rare fish for here. What's that? It's a red grouper looks like. Yeah, it's a red too. Um that's really You see that like a bad thing? It might be. Um we'll we'll we'll measure him. I think he looks good. Yeah. Okay. Um but um All right. We have some issues with some of the other fish. We'll get to that here in a second. That's a vermilion snapper. He's going to be short. Um so they've got to be um these guys got to be 12 but I'm going to just We'll just leave these in here and then I'm going to search the rest of the boat and then and then we'll get to it. Um And then we'll go under here. Need me to help you out or you got it? Ah, got it. Uh you got water in here? Yeah, water in here. Good. Good. Just make sure I I let I I just let people know because sometimes they don't know. Like some of [snorts] the live wells are you know full like oh that's not supposed to be full. I usually know cuz I can tell if it's fresh water. Not like fresh water but like sometimes it stinks. Yeah. But we're used to that. Watch out guys. Let me look under your bunks. All right guys. All right, that's your sandwiches and stuff. Watch your boots. Can you stand by your dad? Okay. Appreciate it. One, two. That's just dry goods. Yeah. Yeah, we just as part of the deal, we just go through the whole thing. Uh all right, let's do safety and then I'll talk about the fish here in a second. I got to pull a few out and measure them. Hey, you got the uh stick? Yep. Yeah, I'll check that out. Yeah, we just use ours just because it's Uh so uh life jacket for everybody on board. Uh well, for three of you guys. Two Two of you guys are wearing them. Need to pull them out or you just need Uh yeah, I can just see the corners of them. I'll be good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're good. You're good. Um And then uh fire extinguisher, sound producing device and flares. Where is the fire extinguisher? Let me see that one real quick. All right, you don't got to sound the whistle if you're good on that. Pull. Yeah, it's got the pin. Perfect. Perfect. All right. And then the flares. Okay, I forgot about Okay. No flares. You got me on that. Describe those. >> [laughter] >> Got you. Um all right. I'm going to grab this checking stick here. We're going to measure a couple fish. Got it. All right. Let me just see two. Much obliged. Um okay, we'll do that. I've got um and I actually frequently use the app. Um it's called Fish Rules. You guys need to grab that and check and make sure you ID these fish before you keep them because we've got some a couple problems. Um Right. Okay. Well, I and yeah so I'm I'm going to record it and what I'm going to do is um I'm just going to get some It's going to be a civil fine. So nothing that we do out here is going to be criminal. If I have the ability to do that if I If it if it We have a reciprocity so what we have is that and I don't want We don't want criminal charges if we don't have to do it. It's not like you guys have filled the boat with the fish but Yeah, I get you. I get you. It's just you know Okay. And and I'll tell you right off the bat what you know um Yeah, I'm going to confirm it with him. Hey, grouper still closed, right? Um this is this is a Yeah. That this is a what's called a it's a red grouper I'm showing him. We get more and more of these. They're showing up a lot more. Um Uh but yeah, that's that's um he's closed right now. That's our what's called our shallow water grouper closure. Um and um yeah, so we'll go ahead and we'll get some of these uh black sea bass. Um And I usually use them as a fish. That's a good one I can tell. These have to be 13 in. So this one's going to be a little short. He's going to be at 10. Um This guy's good. That's just a little spot tail grunt. That's probably going to be good. Let's see. He's going to be close and I'm going to say that's We'll give you that one. It's real close. These are what's called a vermilion snapper or a beeliner um and he's got to be 12 and he's obviously going to be a little short. Um All right. So he's short as well. And you all must have both cut up most of these fish recently. Yeah, we just This is literally what we got. You're in a good spot. I know. We're really I'm a bass like that. They need to slow down. Oh, yeah. He Somebody filmed us What was it? Like a few weeks ago when somebody filmed us and when you did the boarding and they were YouTuber. Travis is YouTube famous. I got a I got on the boat. I got on the boat and immediately saw the camera. I'm like hello YouTube. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. He's going to be good. This is a female. It doesn't really matter. It's just a color thing. Uh well, so the lighter color and then see the uh the tail how it's kind of rounded there. If you have a point in the tail, that's a male. Um and uh Yeah, both him and I are uh senior officers. We've been doing this for a while and we teach and one of the that's So we we we can teach you a lot about fish ID. Um Hey Trav, I got um two beeliners, four or five black sea bass and a a grouper. So I just need a number. I'm just going to just federal so Uh Well, that it does mirror. Yeah, I don't want to do that. Yeah, we'll just do the fine. It's and so we report this over to NOAA. NOAA gives you a fine. It's If it's your first time, it's called what's called joint and several so I get all your guys' information. Uh that's the good news for all the fact that you know we got some undersized fish. Bad news is um we are government so government takes a long time doing paperwork so I might be here for a minute. I'm going to fill out a bunch of paperwork. >> [laughter] >> If you don't mind me start fishing while you're here. >> You can absolutely fish. You're at anchor, you guys fish. And then you got me on board so I can help you out. >> this? What's this explosion?" Okay. We don't want to put more in here unless they're they're keepers. Um grouper will like I said that and I can tell you too if it would have been good. It's a I'm going to say it's good it would have been good normally in the regular season. Just about. I'm going to shoot Oh, it had just made it. Right there. Yeah, so Uh so it it's going to open back up. Um so it's the shallow waters January to May. So Yeah, that's it that's it. Yeah. December. Yep. And um so I'll tell you another thing too on the fish. How how deep are we here? 80? 65. 65, okay. You're good for the barotrauma like the fish is floating. Um and he may try to do it if he's got a chance but if once it's been caught fit even though they're kicking around like this, they're not alive. Right, but what happens is it it's not like a freshwater fish you catch a largemouth bass you put it back. So people frequently when we're on the boat will say, "Hey, it's still alive can we throw it back?" No. Um you can hear in a minute I'll I'll explain all that stuff to you. Um but uh but yeah, you can close that save your ice. Um no at least for those fish and then um I'm going to tell him some stuff. Oh, we're good. I got pants. Thank you. We uh Everybody says that and they're like Yeah, most time using the I just do this so I don't get my paperwork all wet. But we'll get through. They they give us a uniform budget. Yeah, that's why they got Exactly. Um so while I'm doing this, let's see I need catch measurement too. If you get um I just need IDs for you guys. Get on it, kiddos. And uh so sorry, what I was trying to explain about that fish about sending back down. One of the requirements for having these out here it's a new federal requirement newer federal requirement you have a descending device a way to get them back to the bottom with barotrauma. Doesn't matter what depth you're fishing. You're not going to have barotrauma at 66 ft you may have a little bit of it depending on how quickly you take the fish up. Barotrauma is when you take them up and they got the gas in them and the the swim bladders is coming out of mouth um and the eyeballs sometimes bulge out. That's more around like the 200 ft mark. But if you bring them up really really fast it's like what you do to a diver. So it basically expands. Um so um Just throw them in there. Yeah, well At first I don't know I said to myself >> Yeah, so yeah and it's out here that doesn't really work but the descending device works and just make sure you get one of those. Um so if you go to return them right return em right um they will um they'll give you a free one. And um it will it basically descends the fish back down to the bottom really quickly on a on a hook. It gets it's a hook and a weight and it sends it it shoots them back down to the bottom. >> I've seen that before. My concern my question was if you drop that down a shark snatches it. I hope I get my descending device back. >> Yeah. Um it's possible. Um then but if you get them from return them right, they're free. So um and you can get one for household so everybody should do it and get you you know a couple three of them. They have to be rigged and ready just so you know it has to be on 60 ft of line and 16 oz of weight at least. So you have to have all that. Got it? Yeah. Thank you. Most expensive fish of the day. Woah, I CAUGHT AN IPAD. IT'S LOCKED. IT IS LOCKED. That's funny. Usually comes unlocked. So if you just want to sign um let me do this. Civil going to do that. Um right there. Um What you're signing is you will be contacted by NOAA. So you don't have to worry about reaching out or anything like that. They're going to contact you guys. It comes in as a joint and several it's a civil penalty. If it's your first time it's just going to be a penalty per fish. Um and I don't know what that is. Um so we have See that little blue sticker right there? That gives us a deputization to do this stuff out here and write the federal stuff but it's we turn it over to them they do all the case packing all that stuff. So all I do is gather information but you will be contacted that's you don't have to reach out and do anything. Um by either phone or that email. Let me give you another It'll most likely be the email. Yeah, because >> a that's a landline that you have for the Oh, got you. Yeah, tech has changed so much now that it's starting to lean toward it used to be phone but now you know they'll they'll end up doing it all they'll mail they'll email they'll phone call um They're going to get your money. Yeah, they're going to they're going to reach out they're going to they're going to contact you. Definitely don't ignore it though. Um that's there's some stuff that happens on the back end if you just completely ignore it. >> becomes a major Yeah, yeah. So um the kind of the pain in the butt government part. Uh I got to measure each fish and we're going to agree or disagree on the measurement. We're going to all Well, I still have to go through it. And and we have to go to each fish so we're going to it it shouldn't take too long. I've been on boats where we had to do this with what like 150 fish? You have to use yeah multiple forms it's super pain. So at that point we're distributing waters and all that stuff. This is this will go pretty quick but um I need all the initials in the everybody's in this little agree box or disagree box. But um I'm going to write the results um down here and then just everybody and I have to go fish by fish. So we'll go do that and then the description of um all these fish none of these um and uh yeah, I'll I'll double check on those. Um they all should be the same type of measurement so we should be good. Um and did well with that too. I want to see when this I want to make sure I got that season right. I'm not going to do catch measurement on the grouper. Don't need it. It's closed. Well, I already wrote it on the form so might as well. Doesn't matter. All right. It really doesn't matter on that guy. But what is it? Did he stretch him out? He's 20 so we'll get him bent for the dial co 20 and a quarter on him. And so he's he'd be oversized if it was in season. So on the red grouper which is the first one the total length the result in inches I'm going to write that down. Yeah, I appreciate it. Maybe I will. Yeah, I know I saw you I saw you. I was like going to go for the pants. And and well I don't worry about that as much but I worry about the the paperwork cuz it gets all over the paperwork and then I have to turn it in and they go uh It's all lined up. That's funky. Put it in the trash. So we'll just pass it around. We'll go uh we'll go in order. So I just Just initial each one? Yeah, just by agree and write it real small in there cuz we got to have everybody squeeze into that little box. We got to update that form. And then just go all the way around with it and we're just saying that one's uh 20 and a quarter. Just wanted to get that one out of the way quick so we're on the black sea bass now. We'll start on those. So let's up Let's close the mouth and then I pinch that tail. He's got to get to 13 but that's what's called 12 or 11 and 3 quarters. All right, it's going to be right at 12. You know about the the other world measurement way and the America way. Yeah, you know I would get that 12 too. You guys have a Oh, there it goes. You can't just laugh at me. I was looking for something to write on. I'm just lining them up for a a group a group photo. Cuz all this individual photo stuff just we don't need to be doing. It's just taking up time. I think this is the last one right now. Yeah. And one more it's going to be that guy. Uh you're going to move for the group photo. That one is what 10 and we'll give it 10 and a quarter. All right, that one's almost we'll give that 10. I can't grab that one. Yeah, but he'll get to 10 right at 10 in. And that was the last one for that. Get a group group photo here cuz All right, bad news is taking photos all these fish take some time. But I'm not The good news is I now that's my evidence so I don't need to keep it. Okay. So you guys can do what you want with the fish. I'm not seizing the fish. We're going to dispose of them in the water properly. Don't worry we'll take care of And here's the thing like I said I I don't care. It doesn't At this point it's they somebody else did stop you technically they would do something we're not I don't Woah, I could get double booked. But yes, technically but but these fish would go to waste and then you know so We do but it's Yeah, I like I said I'm I'm going to put them back in the cooler. I do not care what you guys do like I said it's not you know it's food so you know but I just I can't even really I can't make I can't even make it because what happens is I make a recommendation. I've told you what to do with it. Technically I've seized that fish, right? So I can't really do that. So we're all set. We're good on that. Um let me hand you back the uh ticket stick. Is it too late to ask for a warning? For for what? >> too late to ask for a warning? A warning? Yeah. See Yeah, unfortunately not with federal fisheries, it's not how it works, but um So, the signature portion, just uh if you want to go real small there cuz we got to fit everybody's signature into there. Um yep, right there. Yep. Just a digital signature. Yeah. Well, glad I caught y'all early, you know, we've got more probably a little more fish later on. So, um you did get warnings for the uh flares. Make sure you get your flares. And um the who cares about the number of fish on the side really, but Yeah, and that's why we do the safety portion of it is, you know, um educate. Um but yeah, and then just grab uh that descending device uh when you get the chance. Get back in and then Tell them about the Return them right and you get a free one? Yep, for the Return return Oh, okay. Yep, and then so they'll ask if you're fishing the Gulf, but I talked to the guy, he's fine with it in the Atlantic. You just put your address in for the Atlantic. But then then they were fishing up here, but do you fish in the Gulf? Yes. Have you ever fished in the Gulf? Yes. Answer that question. >> I'm not fishing in the Gulf, yes. And they'll give you a free one. And it's uh it's about an $80 piece of equipment. Uh it's a Yeah, so you get a lead weight. Uh so you get 3 oz or three 3 lb lead weight. You get the uh descending device rigged with all the equipment. So, all you got to do is put it on a rod, hook it and it just grabs a fish by the lips, sends them down. Um and like I said, barotrauma exists typically in a little bit deeper depths, but if you got the the the kid super excited and >> [laughter] >> Like an electric motor like an electric motor pulling them up. Yeah. There they are. I'm tired. Yeah, I'm ready. Well, it was nice to meet you guys. >> Yeah, sorry under better circumstances. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> You got a bar or something, we're having fun, but >> Yeah. I mean, well, the ocean works, too. Be safe, guys. All right, guys. Be safe. Take care. In the end, they were cited for being in possession of one out of season red grouper, five undersized black sea bass, and two undersized vermilion snapper. The officer passed the information along to NOAA, who likely assessed civil penalties for the fish. According to their table, the base fine is $250 plus $25 per fish. If you like this video and want to see more like it, subscribe to Arrest Cam. As always, thanks for watching.