Poachers

This is just short note while it is fresh in my head.


I had to deal with lobster poachers this afternoon. I hope this is not a regular affair. Around noon I heard noise from near the dock. This is something I am "tuned to" and headed to the dock to check things out. Usually there is a boat anchored near the dock which is legal but not too cool. But this time the boat was anchored close to shore and a snorkel diver was down near the dock. He proceeded on west approaching the boathouse.  By the time he was past the dock I decided to get the camera and be obvious about taking pictures. After taking several pictures of the boat, I realized I needed to "greet" the diver at the boathouse. After all I have told everyone I wanted to greet guests. So as he surfaced about 5 feet from the boathouse I was standing over him on the deck. He grunted and turned away. I took a couple more pictures and returned to the house.

But as I waited for them to move on I got more uneasy. I finally decided to call for back up.  After some wrong agency calls I got the Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC). After a few minutes of explanation about who and where I was she dispatched an officer.

In a while I returned to the dock and took more pictures.  At one point, as the diver returned to the boat, the boat folks told him to come around the boat to the other side - out of my view. I could not see what was transferred to the boat. More pictures. Then I returned to the house.

I heard the boat start or try to start. I assumed they were leaving but all they did was move closer to the boathouse and reset anchor. Three of them then started snorkelling the wreck I knew was under them. And drifted away with the current. I made myself very obvious and said nothing while shooting an occasional picture.

The snorkellers started to try to return, up stream, to the boat.  It was too much for them. They swam to and along the shore line which is considered part of our property. They stopped right next to the boathouse and walked around on our freshly transplanted coral and my octopus' stomping grounds. I took more pictures. They finally asked why I was taking pictures and that they were not doing anything wrong. I finally spoke and with no real evidence said that this is a lobster sanctuary and harvesting lobsters was illegal. They professed innocence. I told them that was cool and they would then have no trouble with the FWC who were on the way. My visitors seemed to get nervous and tried to swim to the boat again - against the current. I let it go and sat in the boathouse until I heard a clunk on the outside deck. I went around the corner to find one of them on the deck in front of me. He explained that he was tired from the swim. They finally got a plan together, he was the boat driver, to drift the boat and he could swim to it. So up he got and headed to the far end of the deck. I took a picture.

As he dove into the water, I got a one finger salute. As he swam to the boat he said many hurtful things to me (well, he wanted them to be hurtful). Once in the boat he got louder and more abusive. He expressed all the things he would do to my sister and more.  He dropped his pants and told me to "shoot this". I also had it explained to me why I was alone on an island with no wife and children. He knew... It was interesting that when he was on my deck, within 5 feet of me, he was not so verbose.        ( I hope the imagery was not too much)

They are now gone. The FWC has yet to show. I am not sure if I should be concerned that I really have no backup or just know that people are not really going to act on threats or do bad things. Things to ponder...

I know I said this was to be a short note but unlike the previous discussion of my trip to town, this DID flow...

cz, 1830 10/19/2014