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Rogelio Crespo, 43, of Miami, Florida, United States was recently arrested by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. He was charged with possession of undersized lobster, possession of out-of-season lobster, possession of wrung lobster tail in the water and harvesting lobster without a measuring device.

On July 23, 2021, Monroe County Sheriff's Office marine deputy Willie Guerra was patrolling near Grassy Key, Florida when he observed Crespo diving without a dive flag in the water. The deputy observed two lobsters in the suspect's possession.

A wrung lobster tail was also found in Crespo's shorts pocket. He was taken into custody that day.

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Crespo is not the first person arrested for possession of undersized lobster in Florida. In July 2010, Norma Barbee, 57, of West Palm Beach, Florida was stopped with what appeared to be a lobster too small for hunting and when an officer left with her driver's license to run a background check, she tried to switch out the lobster in question for a lobster of legal size, according to investigators.

In January 2021, a total of 15 total lobster tails, 10 of which were undersized, were found in a cooler in the back seat of the vehicle of Juan Saturnino Avila Lopez, 53, of Little Torch Key, Florida. Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies gave him a mandatory notice to appear.

In May 2021, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigator on water patrol spotted Juan Alberto Reyes Ferrales, 43, of Miami and confiscated from him 14 spiny lobsters, most of them undersized. He was charged with possession of the out-of-season lobsters and harvesting the lobster by puncturing.

The Florida lobster sport season will start at 12:01 a.m. on July 28, 2021 and will end at midnight on July 29, 2021. The regular season will start at 12:01 a.m. on August 6, 2021 and will end at midnight on March 31, 2022.

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