I have some co-workers and they catch red snapper out of season, undersize amberjack, and anything else they want. They filet them on the boat and throw everything that can identify the fish, overboard.
I would never do it though, because: 1.) I have so much fish to eat, I’m worried about getting rid of it before the season starts again. 2.) I don’t want the worry – penalties are high. I read where they caught someone with 600lbs of snapper out of season and the court assessed a penalty of $18,000. 3.) I don’t want to give spearfishing a bad name.
IYA, you had better stay in Indonesia! Here is my story of my experience with the Coast Guard and I’m not even an alien from a Moslem country.
In July of 2001 I took my wife, who is Filipino, and a friend from work. It was a stormy day, but the forecast was for the storm to be north, so we went south toward Mexico. Got soaked on the way back, but never encounter more than 3’ seas. The Coast Guard was giving inspections that day, and with the storm, there weren’t many boats to inspect so they jumped on ours.
First question the Coast Guard asks, is do you have any weapons on board. Well it was my boat, and I knew I didn’t bring a gun, so I immediately said no. The next thing they wanted to know was were we went? When they found out we went south they got a little excited and called two more agents to assist them. Then they wanted our ID. When they found out my wife, who was not a citizen yet, and did not have her card or any id with her, they got even more excited and took her away from us.
Then they started going through the whole boat, removing seats, looking in our gear, etc.. One of them was going through my friend's bag when all of sudden he yelled “Gun!” At that time they went real crazy, two of them pulled their guns and they ordered us to get out of the boat and sit on the dock on our hands. I could go into more detail, but the ending results are below.
My friend who is a former special troops guy, who has seen more action than most men still alive, had gone camping the weekend before in a place know for trouble, because of drug and illegal alien smuggling from Mexico. He had put the gun in the bag the previous weekend and forgot to take it out. They were going to give my wife to the boarder patrol, but after the main officer questioned each of us individually and all three of our stories were the same, they gave her back to me with a stern warning about never letting her go anywhere again without her ID again.
Twelve hours on the water, two being held captive by the coast guard, then we had fish, boat, and gear to clean and put up, it was one long tiring day. Being a law abiding citizen my whole life and being held at gun point by an officer, really bothered me, until 9/11. Now I can appreciate what they do more.
Before 9/11 the coast guard in south Texas was mainly concerned about drug smuggling. Now its terrorism. Our local port has been one of the main ports in shipping military vehicles and supplies to middle east the past few months. You would not believe the quantity of stuff going out.
IYA, I invite you to go spearfish with Rig or anyone else from the board, except me! Just kidding!
Don
