Crab-trap thief Steven Shutt has a long history of marine enforcement violations

BAY MINETTE, Al.
A Baldwin County jury this week found a crab fisherman guilty of stealing dozens of commercial crab traps.
Lt. Trey Pose of the Alabama Marine Resources Enforcement Division said the jury’s decision is the largest crab-related conviction in the division’s history based on the value of the stolen traps.

Steven Randall Shutt

Pose said Friday that officers began looking into Steven Randall Shutt after they were informed in Oct. 2009 that he had been talking about getting into the crab business by stealing other fishermen’s traps.
Officers then tracked Shutt’s activities over the next several months but were not able to catch him in possession of any stolen traps, Pose said.
On Feb. 16, 2010, Pose said, he received a tip that Shutt was about to launch his boat loaded with crab traps into Little Lagoon west of Gulf Shores.
When the deployed traps were checked, Pose said, he was able to identify several as belonging to other crabbers.
Officers called Shutt to the scene, where he claimed all of the traps were his.
Pose said officers later discovered 50 traps at Shutt’s house. He then told officers that he had either snagged the traps in his gill net or bought them from shrimp boats that had brought the traps onboard in nets, according to Pose.
Shutt told officers he paid $5 each for the traps off the shrimp boats, but he could not remember the names of the boats.
Pose said the traps Shutt claimed to have caught in his gill net should have been immediately returned to the water.
Ultimately, officers confirmed that 45 of the traps belonged to other crabbers. Several still had the true owners’ names etched on the traps. Others were identified through their unique construction, Pose said.
Three active Baldwin County crab fishermen owned 25 of the traps while the remainder were owned by fishermen who had moved away from the area, Pose said.
Each trap has a value of between $35 and $45, according to Pose.
Shutt has a long history with marine enforcement officers with charges for 11 previous violations relating to use of a commercial gillnet, according to Pose.
Several convictions caused him to lose his commercial gill-net license several years ago, Pose said.
Shutt was first convicted by a Baldwin County District Court judge during a bench trial in April 2010. He appealed that decision to Baldwin County Circuit Court, where the trial was held this week.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 12.
In addition to possible prison time, Shutt faces fines and restitution, Pose said.
Pose said the case highlights the persistent problem on Mobile Bay of people stealing commercial and recreational crab traps and the crabs inside, especially among the small community of roughly 10 active crab fishermen working out of Baldwin County.
“Whether it’s Steven Shutt stealing their traps or a recreational fisherman taking a couple dozen crabs then throwing the trap back in the water and thinking it’s OK, it’s stealing,” Pose said. “This is how these people put food on the table.”