A Key West girl is dealing with expenses after state wildlife officers discovered her in possession of queen conch.
On Aug. 22, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee (FWC) charged Madison West, 25, with six counts of violating Florida Administrative Code 68B-16.004, which prohibits the harvest, possession or transport of queen conch.
Below Florida regulation, is illegitimate to reap, kill, molest, hurt, mutilate, possess, transport or land queen conch, no matter the place they’re taken. The presence of queen conch aboard a vessel in Florida waters, whereas people are overboard, is taken into account proof that the conch had been illegally harvested.
On July 8, FWC Investigator Chris Mattson started investigating an e-mail he acquired by FWC’s Wildlife Alert. The grievance alleged that photographs of stay queen conch aboard a vessel off Key West had been posted to social media.
Following interviews with the vessel’s proprietor, operator and West, Mattson decided that West harvested stay queen conch and positioned them onboard the boat.
The FWC takes marine life and wildlife violations very critically and encourages the general public to report them by calling the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (888-404-3922) or submitting a tip on-line at MyFWC_WildlifeAlert.For extra FWC Division of Legislation Enforcement information, go to MyFWC.com/LENews.