A Miami Beach boat captain who sat on a local boating-safety task force is facing attempted-murder charges after cops say he swam over and deliberately shut off an 18-year-old diver’s air supply during a heated spat over a prime lobster hole.
Michael Joseph Simpson Jr., 51, owner of Island Queen Cruises, was locked up earlier this month after the July 29 melee in Biscayne Bay, about a half-mile east of Fisher Island. It happened on the opening day of Florida’s two-day recreational lobster mini-season, the annual free-for-all that turns the waters into a floating free-for-all of greed, elbows and bad tempers.
According to the arrest report, Simpson’s boat roared up to a vessel already anchored at a known lobster spot, circling it at high speed. Words flew. Occupants of Simpson’s side allegedly claimed the other boat had “stolen” their spot. When the teen, identified as Hunter Coffer, was already underwater using a floating Brownie’s Third Lung surface-air compressor, Simpson allegedly snapped that he’d “turn the Brownie off if I want to.”
Witnesses told detectives they then watched the 51-year-old swim over and flip the switch, cutting the kid’s air. Coffer’s partner hauled him up, gasping, disoriented and tangled in the hose and anchor line. Someone on the boat shouted, “We have a diver down there, you asshole!” Cellphone video captured parts of the chaos.
Simpson, who recently served on Miami-Dade’s Boater Safety and Bay Education Task Force created after a fatal bay crash, has denied everything. He claims he never touched the equipment, insists the other captain accidentally killed the compressor by yanking a line, and says Florida Fish and Wildlife officers initially cleared him on the water. His family called the allegations “categorically false” and noted he was diving with his own young sons that morning.
Prosecutors weren’t buying it. He was charged with second-degree attempted murder, posted bond, and was released. The case has already sparked a conflict-of-interest request from the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office, because the prosecutor herself also served on the same safety task force as Simpson, asking Gov. Ron DeSantis to move the trial out of the county.
Florida’s mini-season is legendary for packing the reefs with weekend warriors chasing the legal limit of six bugs apiece. Arguments over “spots,” dive flags and floating compressors are common. Turning someone’s air off while they’re on the bottom? That’s a whole different level of lobster-fueled unhinged.
Simpson’s attorney has vowed to fight the charges in court. For now, the man who helped advise the county on safer boating is the one facing the possibility of serious prison time, all over a couple of spiny lobsters.
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