A Florida offshore fishing trip ended with wildlife officers finding 23 red grouper on board a boat, and according to the bodycam footage channel WildlifeWarden, not one of them was legal to possess.
The case unfolded in Pinellas County, Florida, in the summer of 2023 after a Fish and Wildlife officer spotted three men returning to a boat ramp after a day on the water. What began as a routine check of the vessel quickly became a much more serious inspection once the officer looked into a bucket and found a large number of red grouper.
WildlifeWarden reported that red grouper were closed by executive order at the time because of overfishing, meaning anglers were not allowed to keep any of them. Even if the season had been open, the officer explained that the group would have been allowed only two red grouper per person, or six fish total for the three people on the boat…