FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — Two Florida men have each been sentenced to seven months in federal prison for taking hundreds of sea turtle eggs from their nests.
A Department of Justice release says 60-year-old Carl Lawrence Cobb and 50-year-old Raymond Saunders were sentenced Monday and convicted of transporting sea turtle eggs for the purpose of sale.
Court records show a concerned citizen reported to state wildlife officials last May that a man was disturbing nests on North Hutchinson Island on Florida’s east coast. Investigators found Cobb had removed over 200 eggs from two nests. Weeks later, officials witnessed Cobb and Saunders remove approximately 469 sea turtle eggs from nests in the same area. They were arrested while taking the eggs to Palm Beach County.
The recovered eggs were relocated in case some yield hatchlings.