Gulf County Pair Arrested for Netting Violations in Florida
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) law enforcement officers arrested two Gulf County men on St. Joe Bay before daylight Nov. 23 with an almost-8,000-square-foot gill net and more than 600 pounds of illegally netted pompano, Spanish mackerel and sheepshead.
Florida’s constitution prohibits the use of gill nets and entangling nets for the taking of marine species.
Ashley David Haddock (DOB 09/24/85) of Wewahitchka and Randall Lamar Moore (DOB 02/06/82) of Port St. Joe face numerous felony and misdemeanor charges for using a gill net. Using high-tech, night-vision equipment, officers watched the pair on the bay on Haddock’s 22-foot boat from late on Thanksgiving night to the time of arrest the next morning.
“The fish had obvious signs of being gill-netted,” said FWC Officer Neal Goss IV, one of three officers who made the arrests.
Both Haddock and Moore are commercial fishermen and possess saltwater products licenses.
The two were booked into the Gulf County Jail. They were released on $2,000 bond each on Nov. 24.
The fish were seized and sold to a Panama City seafood business. The money will be held in escrow, pending the outcome of the case.
The FWC seized the vessel and the gill net as evidence in the case.
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission came into existence on July 1, 1999 - the result of a constitutional amendment approved in the 1998 General Election as part of the package proposed by the Constitution Revision Commission.
In the implementation of the Constitutional Amendment, the Florida Legislature combined all of the staff and Commissioners of the former Marine Fisheries Commission, elements of the Divisions of Marine Resources and Law Enforcement of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and all of the employees and Commissioners of the former Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.
Five years later, after consulting stakeholders, employees and other interested parties, the FWC adopted a new internal structure to address complex conservation issues of the new century. The new structure focuses on programs, such as habitat management, that affect numerous species. It will focus on moving the decision-making process closer to the public and did not require any additional funding or additional positions.
