GLENDALE, Utah (ABC4) — The Division of Wildlife Resources responded to a Youtube video claiming the DWR gave them a wrongful citation concerning a yellow boat.

A Youtube video about the boat, posted in December, shows the Fab Rats team recovering a small yellow boat out of Lake Powell. According to the video, the boat is covered in dead mussels and has been stuck at the bottom of Lake Powell for 30 years. The Fab Rats recover it, clean it up, and then bring it across state lines to Glendale, Utah.

A few months later, a DWR officer issued them a report for not complying with state laws of stopping at DWR inspection sites. According to the DWR, they illegally moved a boat infected with quagga mussels across state lines. Following the report, Fab Rats posted a video saying they were planning to take the DWR officer to court over a wrongful citation.

“I called them up and they explained to me that we could either pay the citation fee. But we didn’t do anything wrong. […] We decided, you know, what let’s go to court,” the Fab Rats video states.

According to Fab Rats, while the boat was in fact covered in quagga mussels when they first recovered it, they didn’t believe they needed to stop at an inspection site as they had properly cleaned the boat.

However, according to the DWR, if a boat exits a body of water with quagga mussels (dead or alive) on it, it requires cleaning from a certified establishment, or the DWR.

Faith Jolley with the DWR said following their discovery they compiled a report against Fab Rats and submitted it to the Kane County office. Jolley explained that once that report is filed, it goes to the County Attorney’s office for further investigation, and is out of their hands.

On March 31, The Kane County Office filed an infraction violation, but on June 7 decided to dismiss the charges. This means the charges were dismissed before Fab Rats posted their video on June 11.

When ABC4 asked Fab Rats about their pursuit of DWR, they said the following: “The citation got dropped, so unless we need to defend ourselves from the DWR office, then we won’t be pursuing this any further.”