When you’re living in a fascist Nanny State that has nothing better to do with its time and plans to squeeze here single drop of blood out of the citizenry. Not that I have an opinion.
Man Arrested For Catching Oversized Fish
A Brevard County man said a simple fishing trip became his worst nightmare. Christopher Rose had never been arrested until an officer boarded his boat 18 miles off-shore in March. “Needless to say it was probably one of my worst fishing adventures of all time,” said Rose.
One of his friends caught a Cobia, which they thought was just big enough to keep. “He [the Fish Police] took a measurement of it. Stood up and said, ‘Are you aware of the regulations on this species?’ We said, ‘Yes, it’s 33 inches to the tail,'” Rose said.
However, fishermen are supposed to measure to the fork of the tail. The officer said it missed the mark by two and a half inches…Rose went to trial for one undersized fish that he didn’t catch. In court, Rose took a compass and measured the fish based on the inches that can be seen, which suggested the fish was not undersized.
“35 inches?” asked the judge. “35 inches and that’s from snout bottom lip to fork in the tail?”
“Yes sir,” replied Rose.
“Whatever measuring the defendant did do wasn’t done with any sort of measuring device,” said the prosecutor.
The judge agreed and Rose was convicted. But the judge spared him jail time. Rose had to pay a fine and fees along with his legal fees, which cost him $2,000.
Not my county, but prosecuting completely ridiculous bench trials with Florida Fish & Wildlife agents is kind of the stuff of legend. I’d bet the prosecutor was less than six months out of law school (been there).
Oh, and ooooooh, “spared jail time”? No one ever goes to jail for this stuff.
Sounds like Florida Fish & Game is majoring is some minor issues. The logic in that statutory length provision is like measuring the “length” of a car by measuring the distance between the wheels!
Anyone with an IQ in double-digits knows what the “legislative intent” of the minimum length requirement is, and so should the Fish Police. If there wasn’t some perceived “intent” to violate the law – the Fish Police could have let this one go with a warning.
Enforcing the letter of the law without the benefit of discretion is mediocrity at its best.