Florida UAS Enforce Fishing Regulations

August 06, 2013

“While in flight, the small aircraft Puma AE is extremely stealthy and can barely be seen or heard and can be launched, operated and recovered from small vessels. Because of its numerous attributes, officers were quick to realize that the aircraft is also perfect for law enforcement applications. The operation concluded with Officers Martin Messier, Raul Pena-Lopez and Josh Peters issuing two federal citations.”

Those citations were issued for a boat being anchored in a restricted area of the Dry Tortugas North Ecological Reserve without a permit and for a sailboat fishing illegally in the Tortugas South Ecological Reserve. This led to the crew wondering exactly how well they could track other illegal activities such as filleting fish at sea, so they are currently testing the effectiveness, which explains why people have been caught.

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