Friday the 13th was an unlucky day for a father and son from Nashville, Tennessee.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission received a call from the U.S. Coast Guard in Islamorada saying that witnesses in the vessel Happy Cat were watching another small vessel at Alligator Reef Lighthouse remove corals from the reef, the FWC said.
FWC and the Coast Guard located and searched the boat, finding a cooler full of numerous hard and stony corals and marine life, the state agency said.
They also found two chisels and a chisel hammer, which were used to extract the corals from the reef, and another bag of coral and marine life still in the water under the lighthouse.
The officers called upon a Florida Keys National Marine sanctuary biologist, who found an additional chisel hammer at the bottom of various locations where corals were also poached from.
Back on shore, the father and son told officers that they wanted the corals and marine life for their aquarium back home.
The father, Ronald Fitzgerald, 63, has been charged with possession of hard and stony corals, and his son, Joseph Fitzgerald, 33, was charged with possession of hard and stony corals, possession of marine life without a circulating live well, and possession over the recreational bag limit of marine life (20), according to the FWC.
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All of the charges are second-degree misdemeanors.
