Canadian man is jailed after illegal Florida Keys lobster hunt, FWC says

Crime admin July 21, 2026 0 Comments

Canadian man is jailed after illegal Florida Keys lobster hunt, FWC says

For two days in the last week in July, the Florida Keys will be full of divers, snorkelers and bullynetters hoping to catch their limit of spiny lobster during the “miniseason” for the delicacy, which is sought after from Miami all the way to China.

But, until then, hunting for the clawless crustaceans could land you in jail, as a man from Ontario, Canada, found out this month.

READ MORE: Want some lobster? You’ll have to play by the rules as miniseason begins

Marko Gacic, 42, from Hamilton, is facing a series of misdemeanor charges stemming from his July 12 arrest in a federally-protected marine sanctuary off Islamorada in the Upper Keys, where a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer caught him hunting spiny lobster using a speargun, according to his arrest report.

Acting on a tip, Officer Aviezer Medina-Garcia watched from his boat as Gacic, wearing scuba gear, swam to a personal watercraft that was tied to a mooring ball within the Alligator Reef Sanctuary Preservation Area, a zone within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, according to the report.

The zones were established to protect the fragile coral-reef system and to sustain marine species and habitat. As stated on the mooring balls, there is no fishing, lobstering or anchoring within the SPAs.

“SPAs and other protected zones exist alongside our regulations to preserve our marine resources for future generations,” Capt. Adam Garrison, the FWC’s Monroe County supervisor, said in a statement. “This blatant disregard of the rules will not be tolerated. I’m thankful to the member of the public that alerted us to this incident.”

After Medina-Garcia saw Gacic place a speargun on the PWC, he approached him and asked him if he had any fish. Gacic handed the officer a plastic bag containing a schoolmaster snapper and two lobster, according to the report. Both lobster had been speared.

One of the lobsters was undersized and the other was an egg-bearing female, Medina-Garcia wrote. During season, the carapace of the lobster, the part that is not the tail, must be longer than three inches. Egg-bearing females are always off-limits. The orange-colored, spongy eggs are clearly visible on the outside of female lobsters. It is illegal to harvest lobster in Florida using a speargun.

According to the report, Gacic told Medina-Garcia that he knew his PWC was moored within the sanctuary, but he killed the snapper and lobster outside the protected zone. He said he did not know lobster regulations, including the law that lobster anglers must always carry a measuring device, according to the report.

Medina-Garcia and another officer arrested Gacic and brought him to shore at Bud N’ Mary’s marina in Islamorada, the report states.

He was booked into a Monroe County jail on Plantation Key on two counts of catching lobster out of season, two counts of spearing lobster, one count of harvesting an undersized lobster and one count of harvesting an egg-bearing lobster. He was released the next day after posting a $3,000 bond, according to court records.

Gacic is scheduled to appear remotely before a judge on Wednesday. He does not have an attorney listed in his docket.

The two-day spiny-lobster miniseason is next Wednesday and Thursday, July 29 and 30. The regular recreational and commercial spiny lobster season runs from Aug. 6 through March 31.

The FWC’s hotline to report conservation violations is 888-404-3922 or online at MyFWC.com/WildlifeAlert.