The Longline

14:08John Moore:Same thing goes for your bills. A dollar here, an uptick there.

14:12Tanner Mansell:it's a slow burn until one day you realize the price you're paying now is way higher than when you signed up. But at T-Mobile, customers had the lowest wireless bills versus Verizon and AT &T over the past five years. And with T-Mobile on their experience plans, you get a five-year price guarantee so you know exactly what your plan price will be for the next five years. So at least that's one thing that won't change over time. I can't guarantee you'll still look good with frosted tips, but T-Mobile can give you a clear guarantee on your wireless plan. Lower bills based on Harris X billing snapshots from Q321 to Q425 compared to average AT &T and Verizon bills.

14:47Tanner Mansell:Comparison excludes discounts, credits, and optional charges. Price guarantee on talk text and data. Exclusions like taxes and fees apply. See T-Mobile.com.

14:56John Moore:Support for the show comes from Shopify. Every worthwhile journey starts with a handful of what-ifs.

15:01Tanner Mansell:But one day you'll be able to look back and realize that all those what-ifs were small steps towards turning your dream into a thriving business. Shopify can help you get there. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all e-commerce in the U.S. Join them and turn those what-ifs into... With Shopify today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial today at shopify.com slash voxbusiness. Go to shopify.com slash voxbusiness. That's shopify.com slash voxbusiness.

15:37John Moore:The day after John Moore and Tanner Mansell found the long line, John noticed that he had missed a call from Florida Fish and Wildlife.

15:46Tanner Mansell:So I called them, and now the guy was like very, like the tone had changed so dramatically on the phone, and the guy now was like super aggro sounding on the phone. And he's like, I need you to come down to, you know, the marina right now. And, you know, I want to talk to you. And I was like, hey, I'm going to talk to a lawyer because I knew something was up. And I did not go down and meet him. And I said, you can talk to my lawyer.

16:14John Moore:And then John found out that the rumors he'd been hearing online were true. The long line had actually been legal. Someone had a permit for it.

16:25Tanner Mansell:And it was permitted through NOAA, through the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

16:31John Moore:The organization that John says had seemed concerned about the line being there when his co-worker called them. They learned that the permit belonged to a local fisherman's boat and that it was a type of permit that was hardly ever granted. Here's Tanner. So this is the most rare permitted line in the U.S.

16:55Tanner Mansell:Only up to five, I think, are given out per year. And initially I just felt bad because I'm like, oh, you know, we obviously interfered with a legal thing. But we did everything we could to make sure that it wasn't. Like we, you know, we thought we were uncovering a crime the whole time. We asked law enforcement.

17:15John Moore:John and Tanner didn't hear anything else from law enforcement over the next few months. But they say a lot of people in the community were talking about what happened.

17:25Tanner Mansell:There's a big anti-shark culture in Florida, you know, in the fishing community. You know, because a lot of the fishing community hates the sharks because, you know, the sharks eat their catch. and so a lot of the fishermen you know want the sharks dead and you know and we regularly see you know gunshot wounds to sharks like that's just a standard in our business you know we're we're out there diving with these sharks and you see sharks on the daily with bullet holes in their head and stuff um and so as soon as the fishing community found out that this was a legal line that was killing sharks out there, and that we had thwarted this, we became, like, public enemy number one, and they were like, I was getting death threats.

18:17John Moore:A couple of months after they found the line, Tanner got a knock on his door. It was an official from NOAA and some police officers. Tanner remembers them saying that they were now investigating what had happened with the long line as a stolen property case.

18:34Tanner Mansell:They essentially said to me, they were like, we're not going after you. We're going after Captain John. We're not planning to put you on the indictment, but we need information and we need your cooperation. And I was like, all I said was, yeah, I'm not doing that. I'm going to speak to a lawyer and we can talk after that. But I don't feel comfortable. And so they're like, okay, very well. No worries. And then they left. and then I told John I'm like dude John like they're seriously coming at us they were coming at you and I just didn't say anything because I didn't feel comfortable the whole thing just seemed so insane like we you know if I was gonna if we were gonna commit a crime out there like I wouldn't be calling the police while I was doing it I wouldn't be calling you know fish and wildlife repeatedly on myself.

19:28Tanner Mansell:And the people, the passengers we had, this chief of police, his wife, who also worked in law enforcement, as witnesses to this, you know, because they were listening to my phone conversations on Speaker. They were seeing me reporting this in real time. There was no way that you could have thought that we were doing anything, you know, illegal out there.

19:50John Moore:John and Tanner both hired lawyers, But they hadn't been officially charged with anything. So they waited and tried to keep working as usual.

20:00Tanner Mansell:It was always in the back of my head, but I honestly, you know, I never thought anything would come of this. You know, you couldn't forget about it because still, like, almost on a daily, there were people, like, waving pistols at me when I'd go out of the harbor. You know, fishermen waving guns at me and, you know, yelling obscenities at my passengers and stuff. Like, the level of, you know, vitriol from the fishing community was insane.

20:35John Moore:It was like this for a couple of years. In 2022, Tanner traveled to Indonesia, where his partner runs a non-profit.

20:46Tanner Mansell:So I just landed in Indonesia. I'm about two days in. And I get a call from my lawyer who says, you're being arrested and you need to be in the U.S. tomorrow.

20:59John Moore:John was at home in Florida when he got the call. He remembers it was his wedding anniversary, and he was at the store buying flowers for his wife. Tanner's lawyer reached out to the prosecution to explain that Tanner was out of the country.

21:16Tanner Mansell:and said, they're willing to turn themselves in. Tanner's in Indonesia. He'll catch the first flight back. But we need a little bit of time. And that's when things started getting really serious because the prosecutor started arguing that we couldn't do what's called like a safe surrender or we couldn't turn ourselves in, that they were going to arrest us on our doorstep.

21:37John Moore:John says that after a lot of back and forth through their lawyers, they were finally able to turn themselves in. They were both charged with theft of commercial fishing gear in federal waters. A felony.

21:52Tanner Mansell:The prosecutor offered us plea deals to plead guilty. And John and I didn't even hesitate. We were like, no, we're not pleading guilty to something we didn't do. So we were, if we would have pled guilty, we would have got misdemeanors, community service, and we had to write a letter of an apology and admit guilt and be like, we did, you know. And we were like, no. We were like, we're not going to do that because we didn't do anything wrong here.

22:19John Moore:John and Tanner's lawyers started preparing for the trial.

22:23Tanner Mansell:Our lawyers sat John down before, and they tested him to see how he would hold up. And John is such a, like, good energy, agreeing kind of guy that he failed so miserably. They quickly said, John, you are not cut out for this. They're like, it's so easy to make you say, oh, yeah, no, I see what I see your point. And they're like, this doesn't work in court. So our lawyers were like, look, this prosecutor is going to eat John up if he goes up there. And I didn't even consider going up there because I'm like, well, if John's not going, I'm not going. We had four different lawyers representing us.

23:03Tanner Mansell:And they said, we don't think that you guys should take the stand. We think that we have enough evidence here to acquit you. So we decided not to testify.

23:13John Moore:The trial began on November 28, 2022.

23:18Tanner Mansell:The prosecution argued that we intentionally sought out to destroy this fisherman's property because sharks are worth more to us alive than dead. So we stole, essentially, they said we stole the sharks from them.

23:37John Moore:Because you have a tourism business that relies on your clients being able to see sharks.

23:43Tanner Mansell:Exactly. Which, you know, obviously I don't want to see sharks die, but I'm also, you know, no fool. I know that sharks are being harvested off of Florida daily, you know. So I'm not, you know, I wasn't trying to take a stand. I was trying to do the right thing. and I thought somebody was illegally killing them.

24:08John Moore:The Fish and Wildlife officer who'd been on the phone with John, Officer Barry Partilow, testified. He told the court, quote, I advised him, as a law enforcement officer, we would never remove anything from a hook or a line without first investigating it. And we would never advise anybody to remove anything from a hook and a line without investigating it. He also said, I told him not to cut the fish off the line. John says he was surprised when he heard that. He says Officer Partolo never told him to stop. We reached out to Florida Fish and Wildlife and NOAA for this story, but didn't hear back.

24:55John Moore:A NOAA officer who filed a report on the incident also testified and said that the report didn't include anything about John being told to stop. The trial lasted nearly three days.

25:11Tanner Mansell:And then the deliberation lasted in eternity. It was like two and a half days of the jury sending notes to us.

25:21John Moore:One note from the jury to the judge read, quote, not unanimous, cannot get there. The jury asked for more specific definitions of certain words, like mistake. Near the end of the first full day of deliberations, the judge said the jury was, quote, still very divided. The next day, the judge issued something called an Allen charge, which urges the jury to work harder to reach a verdict to avoid a hung jury. It's also sometimes called a dynamite charge.

25:56Tanner Mansell:So after our three days, basically, of jury deliberation and deadlock jury, They said the jury has come to a decision. And honestly, we all felt really good about it. And the prosecution looked stressed. And so when the jury came out, you could immediately see on their face that it was bad. People were avoiding eye contact as they came out. Some of the jurors were crying. And that's when I knew. I was like, oh, yeah, they're going to find us guilty. And like the whole courtroom, like everyone behind us started crying in our side of the courtroom. And I was just, honestly, I was pissed. I was in shock and I was just, and I was pissed.

26:59John Moore:We'll be right back.

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28:19John Moore:Most importantly, they're covered by insurance. 91 % of M-I-D-I patients get relief from symptoms within just two months. You deserve to feel great. Book your virtual visit today at joinmidi.com. That's joinmidi.com. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release announcing John Moore and Tanner Mansell's conviction. It began, quote, a boat crew offering tourists the opportunity to swim with sharks took a pause between dives to steal a commercial fishing gear set. What was your sentence?

28:59Tanner Mansell:The prosecutor was trying to get us to go to jail for five years and pay$250 ,000.

29:06John Moore:They were each sentenced to one year of probation and had to pay back the cost of the longline equipment and the sharks they let free.

29:14Tanner Mansell:And I had one year of community service, which was, you know, I volunteered at the shelter walking dogs, like that was great. It was something I'd like to do anyway.

29:25John Moore:The judge said, I think their primary motivation was trying to protect the sharks and the ocean life.

29:33Tanner Mansell:So the sentence itself was nothing, you know, was really nothing. But there's a lot of things that come along with a conviction. You know, it's with a felony, life changes. You know, my daughter lives in Canada. I couldn't go visit my daughter in Canada. She just bought a house, just had a baby. And, you know, with a felony conviction, anything like renting an apartment, you have to put down that you're, you know, we're planning on moving to California, which we finally were able to do. But, you know, as we're applying for houses to rent, you know, you have to put down that you're a felon on the thing, which, you know, the most bizarre thing for me.

30:17Tanner Mansell:Like, I didn't even have a speeding ticket. Like, I had never, you know, this was not my wheelhouse.

30:24John Moore:Did you appeal?

30:26Tanner Mansell:Yes, we appealed. And luckily, you know, my attorneys, they did it for free. You know, they said, we're going to appeal. And I just said, listen, like, I'm completely bankrupt from this. I, you know, we lost. I can't afford to appeal. And they're like, well, we're doing it. And you don't have to pay anything.

30:47John Moore:They appealed on an issue about jury instructions. Three appellate judges heard their case and decided to uphold the convictions. But one of the judges wrote, Because I am bound to consider only the single, narrow issue raised on appeal, I join my colleagues in affirming, but I do so with reluctance. John Moore Jr. and Tanner Mansell are felons because they tried to save sharks from what they believe to be an illegal poaching operation. They are the only felons I have ever encountered in 18 years on the bench and three years as a federal prosecutor who called law enforcement to report what they were seeing and what actions they were taking in real time.

31:35Tanner Mansell:And so my lawyers were like, well, we're not done. We are going to see what the next step is. And it looked like it was going to be the Supreme Court.

31:46John Moore:But then, in May of 2025, nearly five years after John and Tanner found the long line, they both got a phone call.

31:56Tanner Mansell:It was the day after my birthday. We were walking our dog, and I got a call from my lawyer. She said, John, I have a—can you talk for a second? I said, yeah, of course. And then she said, I have the White House on the other line. And I was like, what? I was actually on a plane and the plane started rolling forward and I started getting a call from my lawyer and he never calls, he's always emails so I was like, ooh, I wonder what this is like, you know, I didn't know so I answered and I said, hey, I'm on a plane it's rolling forward, I've got like 30 seconds, what's up? and he said, you were just pardoned by the President of the United States congratulations And I just broke down.

32:45Tanner Mansell:I started crying. I was like, oh my God, finally, it's like some good news. I couldn't believe it. The person next to me thought I was probably crazy.

32:54John Moore:They were both shocked because they hadn't even applied for a presidential pardon.

33:00Tanner Mansell:I could vote again because that was another obvious thing that you couldn't do. And if I wanted to have a firearm, which I hadn't wanted, but I could have a firearm again and all that. But you still couldn't, it wasn't recognized internationally. You were still a felon, but you were a pardoned felon.

33:21John Moore:Meaning that the conviction, along with the pardon, would still appear on their criminal records. John would be able to visit his daughter in Canada but he says in his case he would have to apply for a special permit John and Tanner's lawyers started working to get their felony records expunged they submitted a petition to the original judge who heard their case John says they were told it might take several weeks to hear back but they heard the next morning that the judge had cleared their records John and his wife live in California now. He's still out on the water most days and still guiding shark dives and wildlife tours.

34:08John Moore:How has this changed the way you do your job?

34:13Tanner Mansell:I don't know if it's changed the way I do my job at all, but it's changed my outlook on everything else. I'm like a very optimistic person by, you know, like annoyingly optimistic for a lot of people. You can ask my wife. And, you know, it stripped a little of that optimism from my brain. Because, you know, I always thought if you do the right thing, then, you know, then the universe takes care of you. And, you know, and this was not the case in that situation. situation.

34:48John Moore:Tanner still lives in Jupiter and still leads shark diving tours, but he says he isn't able to enjoy it the way he used to. One day this past summer, he was heading back to the marina after a trip and saw two large gasoline canisters floating in the ocean, leaking gas.

35:08Tanner Mansell:And my reaction is always, obviously, is to stop and pick them up and put them, you know, clean up the ocean, right? So I got there and I immediately started feeling I was going to have a panic attack. And yeah, no, that was... So I started feeling like I'm going to have a panic attack. And kind of everything froze. And I just started feeling like, you know, what's in these tanks, right? Like, what's going to happen if I do this? So, you know, even though I can blatantly see, you know, gas leaking into the ocean, I was hesitant. And it took me like a good five, ten minutes to like collect my thoughts and be like, all right, this is the right thing to do.

36:01Tanner Mansell:And picked them up, took them in.

36:22John Moore:To see photos and videos from this story, go to our Instagram at criminal underscore podcast, or find us on Facebook at This Is Criminal. We're also on YouTube at youtube.com slash criminal podcast. Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sajiko, Lily Clark, and Lena Sillison. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti. This episode was fact-checked by Katie Sederborg. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com.

37:06John Moore:And you can sign up for our newsletter at thisiscriminal.com slash newsletter. We hope you'll consider supporting our work by joining our membership program, Criminal Plus. You can listen to Criminal, This Is Love, and Phoebe Reads a Mystery without any ads. Plus, you'll get bonus episodes. These are special episodes with me and criminal co-creator Lauren Spohr talking about everything from how we make our episodes to the crime stories that caught our attention that week to things we've been enjoying lately. To learn more, go to patreon.com slash criminal. We're on Facebook at This Is Criminal and Instagram and TikTok at criminal underscore podcast.

37:46John Moore:We're also on YouTube at youtube.com slash criminal podcast. Criminal is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great shows at podcast.voxmedia.com. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

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