legal issue's? off Miami or florida

[AhiSlayer]

Keys fishing...If you spot a raft or boat drifting you have to stay within site of it.

You do not want to get close enough to it to see individuals and what they are doing

This sounds strange doesn't it???

Due to the wet foot dry foot law some of the floaters are now armed. They would rather shoot a fisherman offering a glass of water and steel his motorboat to make it to shore than toss their hands up and wait for the coast guard

Guys fishing tournaments with lots of money on the line have gotten stuck babysitting half amile off a floater for five houres waiting for the coast guard.

Once you see it you have to report it

Then you are advised to stay with it,,,but not render assistance

If you render assistance you are putting yer own life and crews life in danger. Due to the many shots taken at us we are no longer obligated to do anything else.

In the good old days we could give um water and food then catch the bull mahi that allways hung out under them. But nowadays yer putting yer life in danger

Even the coast guard in big cutter get shot at once or twice a year

Be carefull out there
ahi

[capt. jakeg]

I'm sorry and I know it sounds like the wrong thing to do, but if I see a boatload coming across, there is no way they are getting pulled aboard my boat. I would radio the coast guard and let them know. If they were in the water, I think I would throw them a float and standby until the coast guard arrived. Legally, those people are in your care as soon as they are aboard your vessel. Besides that, if they are desperate enough to leave whatever island on whatever raggedy boat they can make, they might be desperate enough to be dangerous if you put them aboard your boat.

[Ozimo2]

Whatever the policy is, it's unfair to a certain segment of humanity. Equal rights and equal protection don't exist anymore and that's sad. I watched Border Protection over the holiday weekend capture another boatload.

[Catch-All]

Your original question dealt with illegal immigrants.

Just a few miles south of where I live, there are almost nightly episodes of Haitian drug smugglers coming from Grand Cay in the Bahamas, also smuggling Haitian illegal immigrants. These drug/human smugglers take their human cargo to a spot about a half mile offshore off Hobe SOund , off the John D MacDonald Nature Park. It's the deserted northern part of the island that Hobe Sound and Jupiter Island share.

THey force them overboard at gunpoint, whether they can swim or not, and let them fend for themsleves. This spot is very near the well-known Kingfish Hole and aptly named Bullshark Barge. If these people make it thru the gauntlet of sharks and surf, they have several miles of woodland and mangroves to stumble thru before getting to civilization. INS just parks on Bridge Rd and waits for them.

After the smugglers get rid of their human cargo, they blast thru Stuart Inlet and unload their drug cargo at some out of the way place, usually abandoning the usually stolen boat.

Do a Google search. You should find all kinds of interesting information about this despicable new twist to the smuggling game.

Catch-All

[capt. jakeg]

Whatever the policy is, it's unfair to a certain segment of humanity. Equal rights and equal protection don't exist anymore and that's sad. I watched Border Protection over the holiday weekend capture another boatload.

Yep, its unfair to me because when they come over illegally, its my tax dollars they use and the government does not protect me from that.