So i've been looking online and on here for areas where collecting of fish/inverts is legal and illegal in the Palm beach, Broward, Miami dade, and Key's area and was wondering if there were any good online resources, i found one for the keys that basically makes it sound like you can't collect from any where in the key's, i'm getting a fishing license and just want to make sure i don't do anything illegal
Collecting sites, South Florida
- Thread starter diveman05
- Start date
philter4
New member
I don't know of a web site, but there are a few sites where you can't collect, John Pennencamp (check spelling) is one, but most of the keyes are legal. Biscane Bay marine preserve is another. Most of Broward and Palm Beach counties are legal as long as you are not in a beach park where it is posted no fishing, but once you are in the ocean there is no restrictions, just follow the laws and don't touch coral or live rock.
is it all corals, i've been looking at the regs.
http://myfwc.com/RULESANDREGS/Saltwater_Regulations_recharvestmls.htm
and it says any hard or stony corals along with fire coral, what about ricordia? do you know the limits on that if you can at all? I just thought a few nice pieces would look nice in the nano
philter4
New member
It is all coral, ricordia is a corallamorph, not a coral. There is a 5 piece limit per day, and you can't take any rock with the ric, so you need a good quality dive knfe with a flat end to collect. Even tiny pieces of rock stuck to the bottom of the ric could give you trouble, but most F & W officers are reasonable.
Please remember to collect reasonably and responsably, destroying a patch of rics to collect your 5 is worse then collecting the whole patch. Take care and work slowly and pick animals that are seperated from the others so if the blade slips you don't rip others, common sence things like that will go a long way in stopping restrictive laws from being passes that further restrict personal collection.
One other thing to remember is that in 15 years of living here I have only seen rics two or three times while diving the reefs. There are lots of ric fields in the ocean, but the locations are very protected by the collectors and usually not accessable unless you are taken there, there are very few land marks where the fields I know of, and dive boats don't go there, you have to be taken there the first time, or get really lucky. In the ocean where the reefs we collect are I have only seen a couple of single polyps and once a large patch about the size of a car hood. They are usually on the front side of the third reef line, and further north in Broward county, in the keyes they they are in shallow water, I've collected them in ankle deep water there, but again, those fields are very protected areas so they can be re visited over and over again by the collectors so they don't give out the locations to anyone easily.
Please remember to collect reasonably and responsably, destroying a patch of rics to collect your 5 is worse then collecting the whole patch. Take care and work slowly and pick animals that are seperated from the others so if the blade slips you don't rip others, common sence things like that will go a long way in stopping restrictive laws from being passes that further restrict personal collection.
One other thing to remember is that in 15 years of living here I have only seen rics two or three times while diving the reefs. There are lots of ric fields in the ocean, but the locations are very protected by the collectors and usually not accessable unless you are taken there, there are very few land marks where the fields I know of, and dive boats don't go there, you have to be taken there the first time, or get really lucky. In the ocean where the reefs we collect are I have only seen a couple of single polyps and once a large patch about the size of a car hood. They are usually on the front side of the third reef line, and further north in Broward county, in the keyes they they are in shallow water, I've collected them in ankle deep water there, but again, those fields are very protected areas so they can be re visited over and over again by the collectors so they don't give out the locations to anyone easily.
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