Two men from Baypoint, Florida Keys have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and illegal harvest of 8,500 pounds of spiny lobsters from an artificial habitat at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS).

John Buckheim, 23, and Nick Demauro, 23, entered their guilty plea before a federal District Court in Key West on Wednesday. Under the plea bargain, each faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison followed by a term of supervised release and fines.

Buckheim and Demauro were required to surrender the navigation equipment and location data for all the artificial habitat sites at the FKNMS and forfeiture of the vessel they used to poach at the said marine reserve.

The illegal harvest took place for six month starting the summer of 2008. Buckheim received $45,000 checks as payment by a Key West fish house for the lobsters.

The FKNMS is a 2,800 square nautical mile area that surrounds the entire archipelago of the Florida Keys.

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Lobster Knife Fight: words cannot express the awesome.

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