2 charged with poaching corals
Two men were arrested Friday, accused of poaching corals in the Florida Keys.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said it received a call from the U.S. Coast Guard in Islamorada that two men on a small boat were seen taking corals from the reef near Alligator Reef Lighthouse.
The FWC and the Coast Guard responded and found the boat. The FWC said officers found a cooler full of corals and marine life on the boat, as well as two chisels and a chisel hammer, which investigators said were used to extract the coral from the reef.
Officers also found another bag of coral and marine life in the water under the lighthouse, officials said. A Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary biologist arrived to investigate and take video of the scene, and the FWC said he found the areas where the coral had been taken, as well as a second chisel hammer lying on the ocean floor.
The men on the boat, Ronald Fitzgerald, 63, and his son, Joseph Fitzgerald, 33, both of Nashville, Tenn., told officers that they had taken the coral for their aquarium back home, according to the FWC.
Both men face charges of possesion of hard and stony corals. Joseph Fitzgerald also faces charges of possession of marine life without a circulating live well and possession of over the recreational bag limit of marine life. All the charges are second-degree misdemeanors.
The two were taken to the Monroe County Jail.
