Two cops testing night vision goggles from an NYPD helicopter during a routine training exercise stumbled upon a crab-poaching operation Monday night, police said.
Officer Lester Sanabria was piloting a helicopter about 500 feet off the ground around 9:45 p.m., when he and his partner Chris Maher spotted several creeping around an abandoned beach in Jamaica Bay in the pitch-black night, cops said.
They hovered down to about 200 feet off the ground and their high-tech eyewear revealed Robert Wolter, 28, and Joseph Knauer, 33, loading two vessels with horseshoe crabs, Maher said.
The crabs fuel a $60 million-a-year market for pharmaceutical companies that process their copper-based blood to sanitize medical equipment. One quart of the blood can fetch up to $15,000, according to experts. The crabs are also used for fertilizer and fishing bait.
“From a biological point of view, they’re worth their weight in gold,” said Marine biologist Martin P. Schreibman. “They’re prehistoric animals that play a very important role for bird migration and the pharmaceutical industry. Their value is immeasurable.”
Wolter and Knauer led cops on a chase past Marine Park and into Sheepshead Bay where local precinct cops and U.S. Parks Department police helped nabbed the duo. A second boat and its occupants managed to flee.
Both men are charged with violating a federal wildlife protection measure that prohibits taking wildlife from a National Park. They will appear in Brooklyn Federal Court and face fines up to $500. Federal regulations also allow for six months in jail but law enforcement sources said that’s unlikely in this case.
“It’s illegally taking wildlife from a National Park,” said Lt. David Buckley of the U.S. Parks Police. “It’s pretty common here and it’s a lucrative business.”