Video shows deadly abuse of an octopus, and a Keys stone-crab fisherman is charged

State wildlife officers last week arrested a Florida Keys commercial fisherman on a felony animal cruelty charge. The arrest happened after a video was released by an animal rights group that investigators say shows him ripping apart an octopus aboard the vessel on which he worked in November.

The case stems from the video, obtained by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, that was released in April as part of a campaign to discourage people from eating stone crab claws. The video focuses mostly on the crew of the boat harvesting the claws, which PETA says is cruel toward the crustaceans, although commercial fishing advocates say the practice is sustainable because the crabs are not killed and their claws regenerate.

But the video also shows commercial anglers aboard the vessel Booga Man killing the octopus and beating a nurse shark against the gunwale of the boat. Both animals were caught as bycatch in a stone crab trap.

Charles Mora, 30, was booked into Monroe County jail on a $10,000 bond June 1. News of his arrest was first reported by the Key West Citizen on Wednesday. The arrest is significant because it is rare for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the lead investigating agency on the case, to seek felony charges against commercial anglers.

Mora’s attorney, Hal Schuhmacher, declined to comment. Mora has since been released on bond. His first appearance in Monroe Circuit Court is set for June 20.

WARNING: Explicit video

Officer Jason Rafter, an FWC spokesman, said more arrests are likely pending regarding the person seen beating the shark.

The video was taken by a woman who asked the Booga Man crew if she could go out to sea with them on their Nov. 19 stone-crabbing trip, according to FWC investigator Christopher Mattson’s April 15 probable cause affidavit.

The woman told the crew she was interested in commercial fishing and wanted to learn more about the industry, Mattson said.

Once on board, she filmed a man who Mattson said is Mora reaching inside a stone crab trap to remove an octopus.

He grabbed the octopus while using “a violent ripping motion and removed the head and guts,” Mattson wrote in his report.

Mora then threw the octopus into a “dark colored bin,” according to the report. The octopus was still alive and moving in the bin “with its guts and head removed,” Mattson said. The octopus eventually died.

“Mr. Mora went about his way and continue to work. He does not pay any attention to the octopus squirming and struggling while suffering in the bin,” the report states.

PETA spokeswoman Moira Colley said the woman who took the video, Kerin Rosen, “simply expressed interest to this crew in learning about the stone crab industry.”

“The crew welcomed the individual aboard, where she openly recorded workers mutilating crabs and octopuses and beating a shark against the side of the boat,” Colley said.

However, according to a September 2015 Louisville Kentucky Journal, the woman is a PETA investigator who took hidden camera video to expose the use of electroshock devices on horses at a Kentucky stable.

Rosen could not be reached for comment. Colley said Rosen was previously an investigator with PETA.

The Booga Man supplies Keys Fisheries, the state’s largest seller of stone crabs, which is where the iconic Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach gets its claws. The owners of Keys Fisheries could not be immediately reached for comment.

Stephen Sawitz, owner of Joe’s and whose grandfather started the landmark South Beach landmark in 1913, released a statement supporting Mora’s arrest and the prosecution of anyone else involved.

“My grandfather helped write and lobby for the laws to which our fisherman are required to adhere. These laws mandate we take the best care possible of the animals and ensure our industry is sustainable. What these hired hands did is an affront to the industry and my grandfather’s legacy. People who treat animals like that deserve the harshest penalties possible. I sincerely hope that this arrest sends the message that actions like these will not be tolerated.”