At its Dec. 5 Commission meeting in Apalachicola, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) made changes to black sea bass management in Atlantic state waters.
Changes, effective Feb. 1, 2013, include:
- Increasing the minimum size limit for commercial harvest from 10 to 11 inches total length and for recreational harvest from 12 to 13 inches total length;
- Changing the recreational bag limit from 15 to five fish per person;
- Requiring federal commercial endorsements and permits for the harvest of black sea bass using traps;
- Matching federal trap specifications and requirements, including requirements for trap construction, requiring traps to be set in waters north of Cape Canaveral and requiring traps to be removed from the water and brought back to shore at the conclusion of each trip.
FWC says that black sea bass populations in the Atlantic are improving, but are undergoing overfishing, which means more fish are being removed from the water than is considered sustainable. Federal fishery managers made several recent changes to help continue to rebuild Atlantic black sea bass populations. The FWC-approved changes will align state management efforts with most current federal regulations for black sea bass.
For more information and the latest updates, visit http://myfwc.com.