An Ocean Springs man will spend one year on probation for illegally maiming an endangered fish species.
Hong Thanh Nguyen, 62, pled guilty to severing the rostrum of a smalltooth sawfish while on board a shrimp boat off the Florida Keys — a violation of the Endangered Species Act. A rostrum is a beak or snout-like extension of a fish that can serve various purposes.
According to court documents, in February 2022, Nguyen was aboard a commercial vessel, Miss Theresa, near Key West in Monroe County when the smalltooth sawfish became entangled in the boat’s fishing net. Nguyen severed the rostrum of the sawfish from its body with a knife, which he knew to be unlawful.
The subject’s guilty plea followed the transfer of the charge filed in the Southern District of Florida to the Southern District of Mississippi.
The case was investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Law Enforcement, which is part of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gaines Cleveland prosecuted the case in the Southern District of Mississippi.
