PANAMA CITY — A commercial fisherman was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison for purposely fishing in a restricted area and altering a GPS to make it look like it was unintentional, federal prosecutors said.
Thomas Zachary Breeding, 29, of Panama City, pleaded guilty in October to obstruction of justice and lying to federal investigators. Judge Richard Smoak heard testimony from a federal agent that Breeding had been cited and fined for fishing in restricted areas during the sentencing hearing.
Breeding was captain of “The Wolf,” a commercial vessel based out of Panama City on Jan. 9, 2012, when the boat entered the The Edges Closed Area of the Gulf of Mexico, which is closed to commercial fishing from Jan. 1 until April 30 each year to protect the spawning season of gag grouper.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) alerted Breeding that he was in restricted waters and warned him to leave and not return, but a week later NOAA’s Vessel Monitoring System detected The Wolf in the area again.
A Coast Guard plane flew over the boat to confirm it was in the restricted area, and the pilot made contact with Breeding. Breeding said his GPS device indicated he was outside of the restricted area, a claim he repeated to authorities the next day when The Wolf returned to Panama City.
Breeding had been cited by the Coast Guard in 2005 for fishing in the Madison-Swanson Closed Area, which is closed to commercial fishing year round, and he and the boat’s owner were fined $25,000. Breeding never paid his portion of the fine, officials said.
He was cited again by NOAA in 2007 for another violation and fined $17,500, which he also did not pay.
