Two Florida business owners are facing third-degree felony charges after authorities say they scattered roughly 1,500 “toxic” mothballs across a beach to discourage an “imperiled” bird species from nesting in the area.
If found guilty, each could be sentenced to as many as five years in prison, fined up to $5,000 and placed on probation for up to five years.
The case began in late April, when visitors to St. Pete Beach in St. Petersburg, Florida, spotted mothballs scattered across the beach’s soft, white sand.
Officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, known as FWC, responded, joined by Audubon Society volunteers who help monitor and protect shorebirds.
Together, they removed about 1,000 of the small white pellets from the sand behind the Plaza Beach Hotel.
By the next day, another 500 had appeared.
FWC officials said at a news conference that the pesticide-laced mothballs had been spread in an area where black skimmers, an endangered shorebird species, were “attempting to establish a nesting colony.”
Because of where the mothballs were placed, officials said other wildlife and children “could easily come in contact with them.”
It quickly became clear that someone might be targeting the birds, they said.
So FWC investigators flew into action.
Crying fowl
The discovery of the mothballs ruffled feathers in the community.
There was “a lot of public outcry,” expressing concern for the birds, while investigators tried to locate the source of the mothballs, FWC officials said.
Law enforcement served search warrants, combed through “terabytes” of data and eventually seized cellphones to try to locate the individuals behind the caper.
That work led them to Christopher Monroe, owner and manager of Chris’s Beachside Bar, and Robert Czyszczon, owner of the Plaza Beach Hotel, FWC officials said.
Out of fear of lost revenue, the two allegedly hatched a plan to use mothballs to deter birds from congregating on the beach behind their businesses, authorities said.
Through video surveillance and receipt records, investigators found that Czyszczon spent about $60 buying “a large quantity” of mothballs at a Walmart the day before they first appeared on the beach, FWC officials said.
Upon examining his phone, investigators found “incriminating” text messages between him and fellow business owner Monroe discussing their objections to the native fowl.
Text conversations revealed plans for placement of the mothballs on the beach, officials said. That’s what led investigators to Monroe as a suspect.
The men discussed how they “were going to do something” to prevent the birds from nesting on the beach, FWC officials said.
Black skimmers don’t nest in trees. They kick beach sand to make depressions on the ground. Then they lay their eggs and raise their young near the surf.
“They’re the worst birds,” one of the men allegedly wrote in anticipation of nesting season.
“The bird people will put up fence around the area, and then the beach people will not be able to get to and from because they will fence around that space.”
Cellphone tower data showed Monroe’s phone was at the same location as Czyszczon’s phone on both nights when the mothballs appeared on the beach, FWC officials said.
The men feared that nests on the beach would lead to fewer customers and less money being spent there, authorities said.
“Why didn’t you tell me we lose $25,000 to $50,000?” one allegedly wrote in a text.
Monroe and Czyszczon were charged with illegal dumping, a third-degree felony, according to Pinellas County court records.
They also were charged with the “attempted take of a state-listed imperiled species by harassment,” a misdemeanor, according to FWC officials.
Both are out of jail on bond.
About 6,800 black skimmers live in Florida. FWC officials estimate that several hundred live on the beaches of Pinellas County.
The pesticide in mothballs can harm people and wildlife that come into contact with their vapors, according to an educational publication by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS).
“With any pesticide, the label is the law,” Brett W. Bultemeier, director of the UF/IFAS Pesticide Information Office, wrote in a 2021 educational publication about mothballs. “The label language is not simply a set of directions. Rather, they are requirements that are legally enforceable.”
The birds probably weren’t hurt by the “harassment,” FWC officials said.
But it did delay their nesting, they said. That pushes the date that their young can fledge from the nest further back in the season. And that could put them in danger.
A big storm at the end of hurricane season, which ends on Nov. 30, “can wipe out a colony if those young birds haven’t fledged yet,” an FWC official said.
An attorney for Czyszczon did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Court records indicate that Monroe doesn’t have an attorney. He couldn’t be reached for comment.
