The Longline | Criminal Podcast | Forensic Files

If a shark is coming towards you, you know, just most of the time just staying calm and just maintaining eye contact is
going to do the trick. It's when people start freaking out and flailing around is when they're like, "Oh, is that a
prey? Why is the Why is the energy so high? Why is this thing looking like prey, right?" I mean, I have a hard time
getting sharks close to me most of the time because I'm like wanting them to get close.
This is Tanner Mansell. He's been diving with sharks for about 10 years. The first time was in 2016
on vacation in Jupiter, Florida. We got out there. We We jumped in the water and it was just [music] like these
sharks were just swimming within 5 ft of us just [music] minding their own business, you know, looking at us,
swimming around, but it was this overwhelming feeling of just calmness [music] and peacefulness. You know, it was a it
was a a high, a literal high that lasted months [music] afterwards. Tanner had been working a corporate job
in Oregon. >> [music] >> But after this vacation, he decided he wanted to make a change.
I couldn't go back to what I was doing knowing that that existed. [music] So, I just started
reading books. I started putting everything I could together to be like, "Okay, how do I exit,
you know, this [music] lifestyle that I'm in and start over completely doing this?"
By 2017, >> [music] >> Tanner had saved up enough money to move to Florida. Eventually, he started helping out on
tours with the same company he'd gone diving with. Working with a man named John Moore.
John and Tanner would take small groups about 4 mi offshore in the Gulf Stream. Then they put a cage with fish into the
water to attract sharks. Jupiter, Florida is known for its sharks. Depending on the season, they have bull
sharks, hammerheads, and sometimes even great whites. By August 2020, Tanner had been working
as a shark diving guide for about 3 years. On Monday, August 10th, they had a tour
scheduled with six passengers, a couple and a family of four. Here's John. And we headed out to our normal bull
shark spot and uh I can't remember the water was a little bit murky, but we had great sharks that
day. Um I think it kind of rained, so the the it was kind of a bit overcast and the the sharks were and the water
just wasn't super clear, but I do remember we had really good shark activity. And um we did a probably about a
45-minute dive and then we were headed back and we still had extra time, you know, before our It was right before
our lunch break. There was a nearby shipwreck that John and Tanner sometimes took tours to if
they had extra time. And so, we cruised over to that wreck, but the water was really murky there.
Like I'd say, you know, almost no visibility. Like maybe not the kind of water you'd really want to be in just
because, you know, it's it just becomes a little sketchier when the water's not clear.
And so, we were getting ready to go back in and uh And as we spun around, I could see this
orange float like or an orange speck in a little bit further out and uh so, I was like, "Ooh, god." You know,
cuz sometimes if there's like a diver comes to the surface away from a boat, he'll inflate a little colored thing so
that his boat can find him and other boats don't run him over. You know, there's been
dozens of times where we've we've picked people up out in the water. And And so,
when I saw this buoy, I was thinking to myself, "Oh, it's probably a scuba diver
or trash." So, we did our normal routine. If it's trash, we'll pick it up. If it's a diver, we'll we'll help
them out get get them back to their boat. And as we got closer, we realized, "Okay, it's just some,
you know, random buoy." And >> [music] >> Tanner grabbed it, but he's like, "Oh,
there's a fishing line on it." And um he started pulling in the line and he's like, "It feels like there's something
on this." And, you know, and it's a very [music] thick fishing line. He pulled and pulled and pulled and then we got
to >> [music] >> um a shark that was swimming on the on the line. Neither of them had seen anything like
this before. I was out there at least 5 [music] days a week. And uh we'd never seen anything like
that because, you know, occasionally, you you know, it it's Florida and people catch sharks occasionally.
Um But, you know, there there's strict regulations for shark fishing. Um >> [music]
>> And so, we cut that shark free. But that line was attached, you know, to uh a thick a very thick line.
Um [music] and so, we just started pulling on that thicker line and uh and it was one of those where it never
ends. Like we we pulled it in we started pulling it and we got to another shark.
Um which we cut off and then we And then the line continued. So, we realized we found something really, you know, odd
out here. When he looked at the setup a little more, John realized that it looked like a
fishing method called longlining. But he'd never seen a long line in this area. And he'd never seen one with sharks on
it. Longlining is uh it's a method of fishing where you will have miles of of fishing
line set out that'll have hooks spaced out upon it. And, you know, when I was in college, I I did uh a couple tours um
working on a longline boat for fishing for swordfish. And so, I knew what longline is, but
this wasn't, you know, where when I was fishing, we had it was a very legitimate-looking setup. It wasn't like
This was not like your regular longline setup. Um This had like little pink and purple weights from Walmart
attached to it and uh to hold the line down and had this little, you know, faded buoy on the end of it.
It was not like a legitimate-looking setup. Um when I, you know, when I longlined, I was a buoy man, so I
I set the the buoys out for the thing and we would have, you know, a massive buoy with on the end
of the line with a with our boat name, uh permit number, and everything on it. And then
it had a a large mast with a radar reflective dome thing on the top so that other boats would recognize it and stay
away from it. And um this didn't have any of that. This looked like something very illegal
and subversive going on. And And we felt like, you know, if we didn't act, um yeah, these sharks would
definitely die. Tanner says there were all different kinds of sharks on the line. Tiger
sharks, nurse sharks, lemon sharks, and hammerheads. And that some of them looked like they
weren't doing well. Some sharks, like hammerheads, need to keep moving to get enough oxygen.
So, they're trapped. They're not getting oxygen. So, they That's how a hammerhead
shark will die is you you stop them from moving in the water. Tanner got in touch with a coworker and
she called NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She said they seemed very concerned
about what we had found. Then their coworker called Florida Fish and Wildlife. And they were as baffled as we were.
Cuz they'd never heard of this either. Like this is not an area where, you know, I knew lots of fishermen
there. No one had ever heard of a longline there ever. And yeah, so, you know, we we got no
indication from anybody that we should stop doing this because nobody knew what this was.
So, they kept pulling the line. At first, we kept thinking this was going to end. Like, you know, you keep
thinking like, "Okay, here's, you know, there's another shark. Oh my god, and this must be the end of this line." But
it didn't end. It just It went on forever. And this is like backbreaking work. Like you're like
hand-over-handing, especially cuz we're collecting this line and putting it on the boat because, you know, we didn't
want to just, you know, cut these animals free and leave like this line out there to, you know, pollute the
ocean or or potentially ensnare some other wildlife. And uh And so, you know, we're we're picking up
this line and coiling it into the back of the boat. The passengers that were on board with
John and Tanner helped pull the line in. And they took videos of them cutting the
sharks free. Go free, baby! Yeah, he's alive. Woo! >> [cheering] >> Ha-ha, that made my day.
And everyone, you know, and everyone was like kind of excited, too, because they'd seen, you know,
it seemed like we had found like something very criminal going on and we were, you know, saving this wildlife. Um
and the first few sharks, you know, they looked exhausted cuz they've been, you know,
pulling against this line for a while. But, you know, when we cut them free, they just they just swam away. Um but
then we got to like a bigger hammerhead shark. And that shark was not in good shape.
It sort of half swam, half sank, and I'm I'm pretty certain it died. And it was a
big, probably like a 12 I'd say at least like a 12-ft great hammerhead. They cut 19 sharks free.
At one point, a few hours in, John called Fish and Wildlife and spoke with an officer named Barry Partelow.
John told him that they were still pulling the line in and cutting sharks free. Eventually, they had to head back to
shore. And on the way, John spotted a Fish and Wildlife boat. And so, I buzzed over to the Fish and
Wildlife boat. And I said, "Hey, you know, we found this line, you know, out there." And And he's like, "I was the
guy you were talking to on the phone." And so, he took photos of this line of this giant pile of line in my boat and
uh and said, "Oh my god, that's crazy. Like, I've never seen anything like that." And he's like, "Can you like put
it on the dock?" And I said, "Sure, yep." And so, I headed back to our marina, where I did, you know, as he
said, I put it on the dock, much to the chagrin of the harbormaster, who was like, "Wait, why are you putting this
massive pile of line?" But, everyone was so intrigued by this line. Like, people
were just coming up and checking out this massive pile of line that we've now unloaded on the dock and we're telling
everyone the story and the passengers are you know, all excited telling everyone what what happened and what we
found out there. And there was a At that point, there was a guy that had like a fishing blog or something and he said,
"Oh my god." So, we told him the whole story too and he's like, "Can I take pictures?" And uh And so, we had, you
know, we're posing with all this line and and he was taking pictures. He's like, "I'll put it in my fishing blog.
This is so crazy." And And that was one of the pictures that then went viral online.
That night, John and Tanner started getting a lot of messages from people who'd seen the photo online.
John noticed that there were some comments that said he and Tanner were going to get in trouble because someone
had a permit to set up that line. And I was just ignoring it because I thought there's no way that that's a permitted
line because, you know, we'd already talked to all the authorities and nobody had told us that there was a permitted
line out there. But then, I was still talking to Fish and Wildlife that evening and they said, "Hey, well, can
we talk to you again tomorrow?" And I said, "Yeah, absolutely." And uh and they were at this point, they're still
everyone's so nice and and you know, they were, you know, acting like we had thwarted a crime and uh and it wasn't
until the next morning that like all of a sudden the tone [music] had changed. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.
>> [music] >> We'll be right back. To listen without ads, join Criminal Plus. The day after John Moore and Tanner
Mansell found the long line, John noticed that he'd missed a call from Florida Fish and Wildlife. 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. 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." 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. And it was a permitted through NOAA,
through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 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 um permitted line in the US. Uh 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 we thought we were uncovering a crime the whole time. We asked law enforcement.
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.
There's a a big anti-shark culture in Florida. Um you know, I in a certain, you know, in the fishing community.
You know, because they the 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, you That's just a standard in our business, you know, where 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 that we had thwarted this, um we became
like public enemy number one and they were like I was getting death threats. 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. 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, I 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'm I don't feel comfortable." And so, they're like, "Okay, very well.
No No worries." Um 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 cuz I didn't feel comfortable."
The whole thing just seemed so insane. Like, we you know, if I was going to if we were going to 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. Um and the people that the passengers we had, this chief of police, his wife, who also worked in
law enforcement, as witnesses to this, you know, cuz these they were listening to my phone conversations on speaker. Um
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. 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. It was always in the back of my head,
but I honestly, you know, I I never thought anything would come of this. You know, we 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, like the the level of, you know, vitriol from the the fishing community um was insane.
It was like this for a couple of years. In 2022, Tanner traveled to Indonesia, where his partner runs a nonprofit.
So, I just landed in Indonesia. I'm about 2 days in and I get a call from my lawyer who says, "You're being arrested
and you need to be in the US tomorrow." 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.
>> [music] >> Tanner's lawyer reached out to the prosecution to explain that Tanner was
out of the country. And said, [music] "They're willing to turn themselves in. Tanner's in
Indonesia, he'll catch the first flight back. >> [music] >> Um but, we need a little bit of time."
And that's when things started getting really serious because >> [music] >> 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. John [music] says that after a lot of back and forth through their lawyers,
they were finally able to turn themselves in. They were both [music] charged with
theft of commercial fishing gear in federal waters, a felony. The prosecutor offered us plea deals
[music] to plead guilty. And John and I didn't even hesitate. We're 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,
um community service and we had to write a letter of an apology and admit guilt and be like, "We did, you know." And
we're like, "No. We We're like, we're not going to do that because we didn't do anything wrong
here." John and Tanner's lawyers started preparing for the trial. Our lawyer sat John down before and they
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 for this. They're like, it's so easy to make you say, 'Oh, yeah, I know I see what you I see
your point.' And they're like, "This doesn't work in court." So, our lawyers were like, "Look, this
prosecutor's 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 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 to testify. The trial began on November 28th, 2022.
The prosecution argued that we intentionally sought out to destroy uh this fisherman's property because
sharks are worth more to us alive than dead. Um so, we stole essentially they said we stole the sharks
um from them. Because you have a tourism business that relies on your clients being able to see sharks.
Exactly. Which um you know, obviously I don't want to see uh sharks die, but I'm also m- you know,
no fool. I know that it sharks are being harvested off of Florida daily, you know, so I'm not 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. The Fish and Wildlife officer who'd been on the phone with John, Officer Barry
Pardelo, 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 Pardelo never told
him to stop. We reached out to Florida Fish and Wildlife and NOAA for this story,
but didn't hear back. 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 3 days.
And then the deliberation lasted an eternity. It was like 2 and 1/2 days of the jury
sending notes to us. 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. So, after our 3 days basically of jury
deliberation and deadlocked jury, they said the jury has come to a decision. And honestly, we had like a
you know, like we all felt really good about it and and the prosecution looked stressed and and so, when
the jury came out, you could immediately see on their face that it was bad. You know, like people
they like 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 they're they're going to find us guilty."
And like the whole courtroom like everyone behind us started crying. And you know, in our side of the
courtroom um and uh and I was just honestly, I was pissed. >> [laughter] >> I was in shock and I was just and I was
pissed. >> [music] >> We'll be right back. The US 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 their sentence? The prosecutor was trying to get us to
go to jail for 5 years and pay $250,000. They were each sentenced to 1 year of probation and had to pay back the cost
of the longline equipment and the sharks they let free. And I had 1 year of community service,
which was, you know, I volunteered at the shelter walking dogs. Like that was great. Like it was something I like to
do anyway. The judge said, "I think their primary motivation was trying to protect the sharks and the
ocean life." You know, so the the sentence itself [snorts] was nothing, you know,
was really nothing. No you know, but it's there's a lot of things that come along with a
conviction, you know, it's with a felony life changes. You know, I my daughter lives in Canada. I couldn't go visit my
daughter in Canada. She had just bought a house, just had a baby and you know, with a felony conviction anything like
like renting an apartment, you have to put down that you're you know, I we're planning on moving to California
um which we finally have were able to do, but it you know, when 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. Like I didn't even
have I didn't have speeding ticket. Like I had never, you know, this was not my my
wheelhouse. Did Did you appeal? Yes, we appealed. And uh Luckily, you know, my attorneys, they
they did it for free. You know, they they said, "We're going to appeal." And I just said, "Listen,
like I am I'm completely bankrupt from this. I you know, I we lost. I I can't afford to appeal." And they're like,
"Well, we're doing it and you don't have to pay anything." 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 believed to be an illegal
poaching operation. They are the only felons I have ever encountered in 18 years on the bench and
3 years as a federal prosecutor who called law enforcement to report what they were seeing
and what actions they were taking in real time." And so, my lawyers were like, "Well,
we're not done. We are going to see what the next step is." And it was it looked
like it was going to be the Supreme Court. But then, in May of 2025, nearly 5 years after John and Tanner
found the longline, they both got a phone call. It was the day after my birthday. We
were walking our dog and I got a call from my lawyer. She said, "John, I 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?" >> [music] >> 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 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 [music] up?" And
he said, "You were just pardoned by the President of the United States. Congratulations."
And I just broke down. I started crying. I was like, "Oh my god, finally. It's [snorts] like some good news." I
couldn't believe it. The person next to me thought I was [music] probably crazy.
They were both shocked because they hadn't even applied for a presidential pardon.
I could vote again cuz that was another obvious thing that, you know, you couldn't do. Um
and if I wanted to have a firearm, which I hadn't wanted, but um I could have a firearm again and all that, but you
still couldn't um it wasn't recognized internationally. You were still a a a felon, but you were
a pardoned felon. 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. How has this changed the way you do your job? Um 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. Like you can ask my wife and uh
and you know, it it stripped a little of that optimism from my brain because you know, it I always thought if you do
the right thing, then you know, then then the universe takes care of you. And uh you know, and this was not the case
in that situation. 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. 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. Um and uh yeah, no, that was So, I started feeling like I'm going to
have a panic attack. And um kind of everything froze. And I just started feeling like
you know, what what's in these these tanks, right? Like what uh what's going to happen if I if I do this? So,
you know, even though I can blatantly see you know, gas leaking in the ocean, I was hesitant and
it took me like a good 5-10 minutes to like collect my thoughts and be like, all right, this is
the right thing to do. And picked them up, took them in. >> [music] [music] >> To see photos and videos from the story,
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For years, John Moore and Tanner Mansell ran shark diving tours off the coast of Florida. One day, they came across a fishing line in the middle of the ocean – with over a dozen sharks caught on it. “This looked like something very illegal going on. And we felt like if we didn’t act, these sharks would definitely die.”

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Episode 359 originally published April 3, 2026. https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-359-the-longline-4-3-2026

Music in this episode: “Cresting Wave” by Blue Dot Sessions “Dire Ghost” by Blue Dot Sessions “Ewa Valley” by Blue Dot Sessions “System Shell” by Blue Dot Sessions “Bogo” by Blue Dot Sessions “Thread of Clouds” by Blue Dot Sessions “Base Camp” by Blue Dot Sessions “Corridor Blue” by Blue Dot Sessions

Brief Summary

Tanner Mansell and John Moore rescue sharks from illegal fishing, face felony charges, and are later pardoned by the President.

Key points

Tanner's Life-Changing Dive. After diving with sharks in Florida, Tanner decides to change his life completely.
Rescue Mission. Tanner and John discover a long fishing line with trapped sharks and spring into action.
Legal Trouble. Tanner and John face unexpected legal issues after rescuing sharks from a long line.
The Jury's Decision. After days of deliberation, the jury's reaction revealed a grim outcome for John and Tanner.
Felons for Protecting Sharks. A judge expresses reluctance in upholding John and Tanner's convictions, calling them unique felons.
Pardoned by the President. In a surprising turn, John receives a call announcing his presidential pardon.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I couldn't go back to what I was doing knowing that that existed.

Tanner reflects on his life-changing experience with sharks.

1:11WatchApr 17, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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