Keys Treasures

Hurricane season seems to have cut Florida Keys lobster fishermen a break in 2006. Trap robbers have not been as considerate, some commercial fishermen say.

“For a while at the start of the season, everybody at the fish houses was talking about how they'd been slammed” by lobster thieves, Geiger Key fisherman Rusty Appleby said. “It was awful,” Appleby said. “[Thieves] were taking thousands of dollars away from fishermen, in terms of lost catches and stolen gear. They were showing no respect for us or our gear.” With the season now nearly two months old, thefts from traps in the Lower Keys seem to have slackened somewhat, Appleby said.

Officer Bobby Dube, information officer for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Monroe County, said reports of trap-robbing have been relatively light so far in the 2006 season. “We've gotten some reports of thefts, but in years past, it was common to get two or three reports a day,” he said. “Compared to that, it's been pretty light.”

Middle Keys fisherman Gary Nichols said some lobster trappers don't see the sense in reporting every theft. “Some of this has been going on for 15 or 20 years in the same areas and nobody seems to get caught,” Nichols said. “Some people have stopped calling because they don't think the FWC can do much about it.”

Nichols said he encourages fishermen to call authorities. “Myself, I get so aggravated about trap-robbing that I have to talk to somebody about it,” he said. “Here in the Middle Keys, I think working with the FWC has had an effect.” However, Nichols worries with the start of stone crab season Oct. 15, lobster thieves may be tempted to target untended lines of lobster traps. “Right now, we're staying on top of the lobster traps but the guys are going to be putting out crab traps for a while,” he said. “That seems to be the time that spells trouble.”

Removing a lobster from a fisherman's trap is a third-degree felony. A commercial fisherman caught robbing another fisherman's traps could face loss of his state licenses.

Appleby said trappers believe the professional trap robbers are diving on trap lines rather than pulling traps. “Fishermen can tell if a trap's been pulled,” he said. “What we've seen have absolutely been dove on. The traps are still in a straight line and haven't been moved, and there's still [marine] growth on the rope, but there are fingermarks all over the trap lid.”

“We try to keep an eye on the traps, but you can't sit out there all the time,” Appleby said. The FWC has about three dozen officers to patrol thousands of square miles in the Keys. “Catching trap robbers is a very high priority for us,” Dube said. “We try to stay ever vigilant, but we can use all the extra eyes we can get. If anybody sees anything, call us.”

The past two lobster seasons, hurricanes have tossed Keys waters, destroying fishing gear and apparently causing lobster to alter historic migration patterns. Annual harvests came in well below the historical Florida average of about 6 million pounds of lobster tail.

With a relatively quiet storm season, early catches are up, according to initial reports. “I think the fishermen are getting more pounds per trap than they have in a while,” Dube said. “Compared to the seasons we've had in the past few years, I think most of the fishermen should be pretty happy,” Nichols said.

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