Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) approved a draft rule creating saltwater game fish and sport fish designations in early December. While Florida has many recreationally important species, it does not have an official saltwater game fish or sport fish designation.
Reasons for considering these changes include helping highlight and protect some of Florida’s premier recreational fish and encouraging anglers to adopt voluntary conservation practices such as catch-and-release.
Suggested parameters for game fish would include no commercial harvest, possession or sale.
FWC believes the sport fish designation would offer a higher level of protection than game fish by making selected species catch-and- release only, including no recreational harvest as well as no commercial harvest, possession or sale.
Before moving forward with the proposal, the Commission removed a parameter that would have limited gear to hook-and-line only for both designations. They also removed a parameter that was proposed for the game fish designation only that would have required captain and crew of for-hire vessels such as charter boats to have a bag limit of zero and not be allowed to take fish home for themselves.
Which fish species will be included under the game fish or sport fish designations will not be decided at the February Commission meeting. If game fish and sport fish designations are approved, staff will return to future meetings with suggestions for potential fish species candidates.
Public comment can be sent to Marine@MyFWC.com. Staff members are also hosting webinars on Dec. 10 and 12 to gather public comment. For more information, contact Carly Canion at 850-617-9627 or Carly.Canion@MyFWC.com.
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