If you like fishing wildlife content, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos. A biologist with Florida Fish and Wildlife saw what appeared to be endangered air plants taken from the Myakka River Wild and Scenic Area. Officers contacted the suspects at a nearby boat ramp. Hey, how's it going, guys? What you all up to? What? What you guys up to? Nothing. I'm going home right there. Oh, you live on the river here? Yes. Oh, okay. Let me just check your gear real quick. You got all your safety stuff with you? My safety life jackets are Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'll get you. Hold on. Hold on. You want me to get out? No, you don't got to get out. I got to take all of this out, really? Well, if I can see it, hold on 1 second. Well, you can see my life jackets in here, flares, a fire extinguisher, night light. All right, you got a third life jacket in there? No. Just two? Just two. Yeah, okay. You got a uh whistle or a horn or anything? Absolutely. Whistle's right there. Okay, perfect. All right. And uh can I see the registration real quick, please? Yeah, you just keep this boat at your dock or I'm selling a boat lift right around Oh, on a lift. Okay, cool. Like this the first time it's been out 10 years. Oh, really? Is this Is it registered to you? Elena. Okay. Is that you? I'm Bill. Okay. You have a driver's license with you or ID? From Illinois? Yes. So, what you got here? Air plants. Yeah. Where'd you get those from? Up the river. Yeah. What do you do with those? Can you plant them or you can hang them? >> No, I hang them. Put them in my tree at the house. Oh, yeah. All right. Um how long you been coming down here? To Florida? 2 years. 2 years? 22 years. Oh, 22. Oh, okay. You still work up there or not? I haven't worked in 20 years. >> Oh, yeah? Good for you. All right. Are you familiar with the Myakka Scenic area? All right. Well, it it starts right here at this 41 bridge. And anything on the Myakka River north of that bridge, you're not allowed to take. So, which would include air plants. All right, there's a a special set of rules specifically it specifically for this area right here. So, you won't let us keep these? Um we'll see. I guess did you guys talk to a biologist up there or state state employee? No. No. >> We went up to Snook City lunch, came back. Yeah, okay. All right. Well, let me uh let me talk to them. So, you also you need to have three life jackets on here. How big is this? 14 ft? I think it's 17. Oh, is it? Uh 15 6, so it's under under 16, so. Um this is what we got here. They're just shy one life jacket as far as boat stuff, and then they got these air plants off the river here. All right. So, do you guys know about the Myakka River Wild and Scenic laws? All right. You just explained it to us. Okay, perfect. All right, so what do you guys do with the plants, by the way? Just I live right around the corner here. If you stand in park line, you point at my house. I'm going to put them in the tree there. All righty. You got to get out of your driver's license. I actually have some that we bought at MRT's that I have hanging in the tree, but these are pre-ordered ones I bought at MRT's. Right. The entire river's super strictly protected. Like the the entirety of it, the plants, the animals, the wildlife, the whole nine. All right. So, Florida So, the state statute under Myakka River Wild and Scenic, under what the administrative code, I think it's like 62 Delta or something, you can't remove any you can't remove or cut any native wildlife. All right. So, what we're going to do here is we're going to have to yank these plants from you, and uh and you guys are like cutting oak branches and everything. You got all saws out with you? Yes. All right. You both you two have your driver's licenses with you? I got it. Right. My license. License. Ronald Corner, I knew where he All right. If I can get yours and yours, too. All Illinois? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Where'd you park at? Uh the house is right around the corner, I guess. >> All right. You Florida resident or you out of state? No, sir. Illinois will be. Illinois with you? All right. Do me a big favor. Can you do your first name, middle initial, last name, and your date of birth? On that piece of paper right there? All right. Perfect. We'll be back with you guys here in a little bit, all right? Just hang tight. Uh so, what do you want to do? Well, the bio >> Do you want me to take the plants? I'll probably just give it to the Oscar Shearer bio to put them back. Yeah. All right, we're going to have to go one by one. All right. I was hoping you could give us a break. I I'm I'm sorry to say, but I cannot, especially since we're actually cutting you a break because they are endangered and threatened species of plants. So, we're not charging you under them being endangered and threatened species of plants. We're going to dumb it down, and we're going to go under Myakka River Wild and Scenic laws. All right? So, not as big of a deal, but at the end of the day, you're still going to have to go to a court date. If it's your first offense when it comes to our Florida's natural resources, they generally don't make a big deal about it the first time. All right? But, who am I got first? Miss Diana? All right. So, you're going to have a court date on the south end of Sarasota County. All right. Here's the address. This is date and time. If you have any questions, like if you guys are going back and forth from up north or anything. Well, actually Yep, they're generally pretty flexible at about everything about changing court dates. I can't reassure everything just cuz it's through the county. You pretty much have to be there. All right? So, I have a job. Yeah, hold All righty. They're not lenient about it, like online, pay online or Uh you you can ask them. I don't I don't work in the county office like that. Might be a little just plead guilty, pay for it, $200, I don't know. All righty. All right, so if you sign by the X, it's not an admission of guilt. It's just saying you'll take care of it one way or another. All right? What is the court for violation of Myakka River Wild and Scenic under 62D. It is taking wild any native wild wild plants out of the Myakka River. Actually, these was Here's your copy. It it counts all of Yeah, like along the banks, everything. He got He'll explain to you which ones these are. All All mangroves, all native wildlife is all protected in the river area. These actually are state endangered. So, they're the highest That's the highest level of protection the state offers a plant. These are giant air plants. Uh Tillandsia utriculata is the scientific name. The big ones that look like pineapple heads. So, like a like your pineapple top. Pineapples are bromeliads. These two are giants. That's a giant. That's a giant. That's a giant. These smaller guys are too small to tell. They could be either giant or cardinal air plants. Even about 7 in, you can start to differentiate. These other things are in the same family. They're not endangered. The little things look like Yeah, the little fuzzy thing. >> needleleaf. So, the other than >> protected. Go ahead. Yeah, other than the scenic wildlife rule, this is a protected plant. Oh, yeah. So, there's another rule. I don't know Dax's rules, but you can't have that. You can't transport it or possess it, whatever Dax's rule is. >> Yeah. You know, you guys are 68, we're 62. Right. You know what Dax is. Actually, I might hand this to you. That's your driver's license and his driver's license. Yep, he's got the registration and his in there. All right. Dax's rules, but you can't All right. This is just a warning for the life jacket. Not a big deal. All right, just going to make sure you have three on board. Three people, three three life jackets. All right? All right, same deal. This is the address. That's date. There's your time. If you got any questions, just just Google the call up and get a different date cuz we was actually going back up north next week. Yeah, I'd I'd give them a ring and they they might change it up. Yeah, just call them. There's a their number's on there. Phone number on there? Yeah, yeah, give them a call and let them know what you got going on. The phone number's not on there, I would just you just Google Sarasota courthouse. Would you be able to Well, do you want to just grab them off the boat or >> Yeah, what's the All right, able to toss me those real gently? The ones on the branch are still going to be at our river. So, I'm going to put them right over there. They can't be moved or you're going to get a Okay. Learn something new every day, you guys. >> Yeah. I learned one. Yeah, yeah. Are you able to toss me these branches or are they going to get caught up in your legs there? Well, this is this is a double one. Oh, it's all it's all Well, that's actually good cuz we can use We'll figure out a way to actually get this back up in the tree. >> You guys have opened that I didn't look. Yeah, I did. You can put it on your thing and then I didn't want to walk that far with my What's the deal? Oh, Jesus Christ. You good? Yeah. All right. Well, that wasn't supposed to be there. What have they done? Yeah. Yeah, you got anything else for me to mess up? No, we're square. Any questions for me? Y'all good? All right, man. Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to freshen up. I think I'm going to Yeah, we can walk them back to you. I'll take this one on the run and then I'll grab that branch one. Yeah, I'm I parked right beyond that dumpster. There's kind of a Okay. >> pullout. Yeah. Oh, that one was also out of their boot. You you you want to put these on your tailgate anyway, right? >> Yeah, I got to take a photo of them. >> But there are a few people have three or four. Yeah, this is These are pretty big. I just saw the giant sticking out the top and I was like I'm 99% sure it's a giant. Could be a cardinal, but there's nothing else it could be. Yeah. That's a lot of plants right there. Yeah. Cool. Can I get a picture too? Cuz I did a report. >> Um, do you want to take this one back out? I think it's it's just to show that we recovered them. Take that. In the end, all three were charged with removing or cutting native vegetation except as a function of permitted activity. All three pled no contest, their adjudication was withheld, and they were each ordered to pay $268 in costs. If you like this video and want to see more like it, subscribe to Arrest Cam. As always, thanks for watching. >> [music] [music]