FWC Law Enforcement Report

November 12, 2020

The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the period ending October 8.

While on patrol on Escambia River, Officer Mullins and Lieutenant Berryman located numerous illegal bush hook lines. The lines were untagged and illegally baited with a bream, a game species. Officer Mullins and Lieutenant Berryman sat on these lines for most of the night, with Officer Roberson assisting in the morning. A subject was identified and observed checking these lines. Contact was made with the subject as he positioned to pull another illegal line which had caught a flathead catfish. The subject possessed three illegally caught fish which were seized. The subject was cited for the illegal use of a game species as bait, and for untagged bush hook lines.

Officer Mullins located a junked jet ski which had been illegally dumped at Quintette boat ramp on the Escambia River. Through the course of an investigation, potential suspects were identified, and it was discovered that the jet ski had been sitting in two of the suspects front yard for well over a year. The officer spoke with numerous witnesses and obtained a confession from the subjects for dumping the jet ski. Officer Mullins filed several misdemeanor charges for illegal dumping.

Officer Ramos discovered evidence that the illegal harvest of Saw Palmetto Berries was occurring on several Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) in Santa Rosa county. With the assistance of Pilot Tolbert, Lieutenant Berryman, and Officers Jackson, Lewis and Lugg the team apprehended 11 suspects whom had illegally harvested nearly 1,300 pounds of berries. The suspects were trespassed from the WMAs and issued over 50 citations and warnings for the illegal activity. The berries were returned to the lead managing agency of the WMA.

Officer Ramos was on patrol in the Santa Rosa Sound when he observed a vessel violating an idle speed zone. A small 18’ vessel was found to have 16 people on board and only six personal flotation devices (PFD). During the boating safety inspection Officer Ramos detected signs of impairment from the operator and administered a series of standardized field sobriety tasks (SFST). The operator was arrested for Boating Under the Influence (BUI) and transported to the county jail.

Officer Ramos was on patrol in the Santa Rosa Sound and observed two personal watercraft (PWC) operating dangerously close to one another at high speeds. He stopped the two PWC’s to conduct a safety inspection and educate the two riders about careless operation and found that neither PWC had registration documentation. While speaking with the subjects, Officer Ramos detected signs of impairment. Standardized field sobriety tasks (SFST) were performed, and one operator was arrested for BUI and transported to the county jail where she refused to submit to a breath test. She was charged with operating a vessel while normal faculties impaired and booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail.

This report represents some events the FWC handled during the time period; however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement. Information provided by FWC.

NorthEscambia.com photo.

Comments

7 Responses to “FWC Law Enforcement Report”

  1. What! on November 16th, 2020 5:06 am

    I’m for law enforcement 100 percent. But if I need to feed my family take a guess at who takes a back seat. Take that comment as you will, I don’t care, bash my comment and I still don’t care. If your hungry you take the animals god put on this land period. You don’t agree? Fine, I don’t care. What until things get bad and let me see you refuse to feed your family. Let me guess, you think I’m an outlaw! Wrong, but I will not go hungry so keep your ethics code and I’ll keep mine. I obey the law but I will go over there heads if I need to. And no I haven’t done that yet but I will.

  2. Niknak50 on November 13th, 2020 2:35 pm

    Barry has a valid point.

  3. SueB on November 13th, 2020 7:03 am

    The Saw Palmetto Berries in the wildlife serves as a source of nutrition for deer, bears, & wild pigs.

  4. Me on November 13th, 2020 1:29 am

    I understand they may be stealing from WMA of the Saw Palmetto seeds but……what were they going to do with all the seeds?
    Naive…..

  5. phillip on November 12th, 2020 8:11 pm

    just sayin
    there are a lot of people taking shots, with bows and guns, who should not be taking those shots. If they aren’t good enough marksmen to take the animal out or healthy enough to track it they should hang up their camo.

  6. just sayin on November 12th, 2020 8:48 am

    I agree with you Barry 100%. It makes no sense that you can use bream on a rod and real for bait but not on bush hooks. Another rule that needs to be looked at is not being able to use a crossbow during bow season unless you have a medical waiver. So many deer are lost due to poor shot placement and are mortally wounded never to be harvested. A cross bow would lesson the amount of deer that are wasted. I know many will argue about this but a lot of (pop shot) shots are taken at deer with a bow for the fact that most have to stand to shoot and are at this point shooting at a spooked moving target. A cross bow would allow the hunter to remain seated and take a clean good shot and actually harvest the animal rather that it running off to die 2 days later. Just my 2 cents.

  7. Barry on November 12th, 2020 4:10 am

    The law about using bream to catch catfish needs to be changed. Im allowed to catch 50 bream a day. What does it matter what I do with them? I dont understand the reasoning behind this law.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News