One more Florida Marine Patrol (which I call the Florida Moron Patrol)
story.
Basically, the Sportsfishing Industry pushed an amendment onto Fl
voters that made it impossible for commercial fishermen to make a
living. The constitutional amendment was written so poorly that
neither the fishermen or the marine Patrol knew what was legal so the
marine Patrol simply harassed the poor fishermen and seized their boats
so they could be sold. This caused a lot of bad feelings between the
commercial fishermen and the marine patrol.
One january night, a small commercial net boat was 4 miles off
Alligator Point when it began taking on water in rough seas. They
radioed for help but supposedly were not heard by the FL. Marine Patrol
even though the marine Patrol at that time was only 12 miles away
issuing a net violation ticket off Carabelle. Finally, after an hour,
the Coast Guard Station in Yankeetown, FL, 90 miles away heard their
VHF distress call and since the coasties had no vessels in the area
told the FL. marine patrol. The Marine Patrol responded that tey had
no vessels capable of going out in those conditions. Of course, that
is nonsense since they were at that time issuing a ticket near
Carabelle and conditions were no so bad that it kept commercial
fishermen inshore. The FL. Marine Patrol also has a 60' vessel docked
at Carabelle that could have responded.
Since the marine Patrol refused to respond, finally, other local
fishermen went out but by the time they got there the boat had sunk
killing its crew of 3.