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Two boaters were arrested after a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer reported watching them illegally harvest fish, crabs and other marine life in Santa Rosa County waters.

Roger Dale Riley, of Milton, and William Bobby Ray Henry, of Brewton, Alabama, were arrested Friday and booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail. Both men were released from custody Saturday.

Riley, 63, was charged with molesting a blue crab trap without the owner’s consent, taking a crab trap’s contents without consent and violating eight Florida "Natural Resources, Conservation, Reclamation and Use" laws, according to county records. His bond was $4,750.

Henry, 52, was charged with violating five natural resources, conservation, reclamation and use laws and booked into jail with a $1,250 bond.

According to an arrest report, an FWC officer was on patrol around 2 p.m. Friday on the Garcon Point Bridge when he noticed a small boat sitting low in the water of East Bay.

The officer was concerned the boaters might be in distress and used binoculars to check the condition of their vessel. He saw one shirtless man "throw a commercial blue crap trap buoy line back into the water, along with the painted buoy showing orange over white in color,"  the report stated.

The officer remained in his position and watched as the boat traveled toward the shoreline before turning and motoring over to a marked commercial oyster lease.

“I observed the shirtless individual in the front of the vessel manipulate the oyster cage within the water for approximately five minutes before moving away,” the FWC officer later wrote in his report.

The officer located a vehicle and trailer at the Garcon Point boat launch that matched the style of trailer used to tow the kind of boat that he had observed in the bay.

The two men returned around 4:40 p.m. to the launch ramp, and the officer performed a marine fisheries inspection on their vessel.

He found 21 undersized red drum, one undersized spotted sea trout, a Florida stone crab that was out of season, three blue crabs and “various other assorted non-regulated species,” according to the arrest report.

Colin Warren-Hicks can be reached at colinwarrenhicks@pnj.com or 850-435-8680.

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