TAMPA — Florida wildlife officials on Wednesday arrested two beachfront business owners on charges that they scattered hundreds of toxic mothballs across St. Pete Beach in April near a colony of protected black skimmers.
Robert Czyszczon, 47, and Christopher Monroe, 52, were arrested Wednesday morning on a felony charge of “commercial littering” and a misdemeanor charge of “attempted take of a state listed imperiled species by harassment,” according to Maj. Evan Laskowski, the Southwest Regional Commander of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Laskowski spoke Wednesday at a news conference in Tampa announcing the arrest of the two men after a monthslong investigation.
According to Laskowski, wildlife investigators received a report on April 20 of about 1,000 mothballs scattered across St. Pete beach behind the Plaza Beach Hotel. The following day the agency received another report, and another 500 mothballs were found in the same spot.
Czyszczon and Monroe spread the mothballs in a spot where black skimmers, an imperiled shorebird, were establishing a colony, Laskowski said.
Investigators believe that the men scattered the mothballs to deter the shorebirds from nesting behind the Plaza Beach Hotel, which is owned by Czyszczon. Video surveillance and receipts from a local Walmart showed Czyszczon buying a “large quantity of mothballs” the day before they appeared on the beach.
Officials said cellphone tower data showed Czyszczon and Monroe were together on the beach both nights prior to reports of mothballs being found.
Investigators also found text messages between the men stating that they did not want birds nesting behind the hotel and that they planned to stop the birds from doing so, officials said Wednesday.
“They’re the worst birds, and then the bird people will put up (a) fence around the area,” the texts between the two men read, according to agency Capt. Matt DallaRosa. “And then the beach people will not be able to get to-and-from, because they will fence around that space.”
The texts between the men said they believed they were losing between $25,000 and $50,000 because of the birds on the beach, according to DallaRosa.
Monroe is the owner and manager of Chris’ Beachside Bar, which is located on the Plaza Beach Hotel property, Laskowski said. Attempts to reach Czyszczon and Monroe through phone numbers listed for the men, including their respective businesses, were unsuccessful Wednesday afternoon.
Mothballs contain high concentrations of chemicals that can poison people and animals exposed to vapors, according to the National Pesticide Information Center. It’s illegal to use mothballs in Florida as wildlife repellants.
Brian Ferguson, a senior officer with Florida’s wildlife agency who was investigating the incident in April, told the Tampa Bay Times then that he had picked up about 200 moth balls the day of the incident, and volunteers with Audubon Florida also assisted in the cleanup.
Skimmers are considered a state-designated threatened species, with habitat loss from coastal development as the largest threat to the species.
There are only about 6,800 skimmers nesting in Florida, and about 10% of the population is in Pinellas County, according to wildlife officials.
“These species need extra help in protection to ensure their survival. When people harass or disturb them, it has a direct negative impact on their ability to successfully nest and bring their population numbers back up,” Laskowski said.
When the Times visited St. Pete Beach in April, an acrid smell of mothballs filled the air near Gulf Boulevard.
The arrests Wednesday were quick to garner widespread outrage across social media. More than a dozen people had already left a one-star review for both beachfront businesses.
Wrote one reviewer: “Place smells like mothballs.”
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