Gov’t expands lawsuit against fisherman who seized research buoy

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On Thursday, federal prosecutors filed an amended civil complaint in the case of the California commercial fisherman who has taken an ocean science buoy from the Monterey Bay into his custody.

As Ars reported on Monday, the fisherman, Daniel Sherer, is the first named defendant in a lawsuit filed last week by federal prosecutors in California. The way the government sees it, Sherer and his fishing business partner are essentially hostage-takers, as they recovered a loose United States Geological Survey buoy, claimed ownership of it, and now demand $13,000 for its return.

For his part, Sherer claims that he merely wants adequate compensation for losses he says were caused by the buoy, which popped up out of the ocean in January 2016 and got tangled up in his boat’s propellers. As a result, his boat was out of commission for about four days. "I have no problem giving it back tomorrow—I have no problem giving it back today," Sherer told Ars earlier this week. "Just understand that you guys need to compensate us something. We've lost in this deal."

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