Broward conch poachers

Saturday Spearalina and I decided to do some diving at one of our spots. We noticed a kayak overloaded with conch coming back to a vacant lot and beach. I went ashore and saw the pile was moving when one of the two males produced a hammer, smashed the shell, ripped out the meat, and threw it in a five gallon bucket. I told him queen conch were protected and he should put them back. He replied it was legal to harvest in Florida and that in Bahamas it was prohibited. Then he an his crew, which included 2 females, continued the slaughter discarding the sharp pieces into the shallow water where anyone could slice easily lacerate their feet. BSO arrived within minutes after. Why anyone would do this on a busy saturday and the quantity of the haul has me convinced they were going to sell them to a restaraunt nearby. The bucket was pretty nasty and they had no ice to keep the meat fresh which makes me believe they were not for personal consumption. We have noticed that the conch numbers seemed way down in this area. These two or others probably have been working the area for a while. We left the scene while the BSO's were moving in and dont know the outcome. At the time, I didnt know the FWC number to call is #FWC or *FWC which is easy to remember if a diver needs to call for help from their cell or a bystander's cell.

Update

BROWARD~`COUNTY

Dispatch advised Officers Asa Dias and Maria Forrest that Sheriff's deputies had detained two subjects for diving for conch and breaking the shells with a hammer to extract the animals. Upon arrival, a cooler containing 27-1/2 queen conch animals were located. The subjects had thrown the broken, empty shells back into the ocean. Four broken queen conch shells were retrieved from the water. The subjects were both cited for possession of queen conch.