collection laws for florida water

[dmilne85]

Hey everyone,

im sure this topic comes up a little to often but im looking for info on collection laws in florida in regards to corals- mushrooms, zooanthids, ect. or live sand, algae, mangroves, inverts ect. I have my fishing lic. for florida that is good till next year.. not sure if that makes any difference in what you are allowed to take.

im going to be traveling down to key west and was thinking of bringing a few things home for my tank if they were allowed. any links to the laws or info in general is greatly appreciated. thanks!

 

[ashrem]

I think its come up once or twice.

http://myfwc.com/marine/recreational/recharvestmls.htm

 

[dmilne85]

thanks. so it looks like zooanthids and richordias are ok to take as with any other soft coral. only hard corals and fire corals are prohibitied.

So does anyoneone ever find zoos or rihordias down in the keys or is this not very common? i spend a lot of time down in key west but just recently got into the reef side of saltwater and now im excited to go dive and snorkel down there and im hoping to see some cool coral and fish.

 

[cubano2480]

I see zoos and paly all the time but never rics........

 

[ahoyhoy239]

where do you normally see them? is it around bridges/ near shore?

the only soft coral i have seen on the reef as a little bit of leather but thats it.

 

[cubano2480]

wen u pass the 7mile bridge to u left hand I saw many types off zoos and palys..... and some open brains too

 

[dmilne85]

what surface was the ocean floor where you saw them? was it mostly in the seagrass or was it on a harder, rocker bottom with alot of seafans around? i saw some really cool pics on here recently of someone snorkeling around bahia honda(sp?) and the zoos were lodged between a bunch of seagrass.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Personally I would not do it, these park rangers down here are against it and you may get caught on a technicality jam, who wants to go to court 2 or 3 times to end up not guilty or pay a $ 25.00 fine, the time lost and the aggravation is just not worth it. Ex. all live rock is prohibited larger than 1" maybe your zoas are on a 1.5" rock, anything with Coraline algae is prohibited also, these people may say "ha theres a speck of Coraline here, we got you. Thats my .02

 

[Von_Rahvin]

make sure you have a print out of the rules and some sort of ID book. when i did alot of collecting the conversation when like this almost every time i got stopped.
"Sir you have some corals and that is illegal i'm going to take you to jail"
"actually no officer i can have these"
"Son, it's illegal to harvest corals in fl waters"
"Sir, i have in fact a print out of the rules from the FMP about collection policies"
"this here says you can take gorgonn somthins and zoo whatevers, you have corals not those things"
"In fact sir i have an id book and i can show you what species i collected"

so on and so forth.
you have to prove your innocence. otherwise you can get ALOT of hassle.

 

[cubano2480]

dmilne85 every were on the rocks and the seagrass....
zoos are soft corals and I belive that we can collect soft corals I`m not sure anyway my tank is fish only now

 

[dmilne85]

ive delt wiht the marine patrol before many times when fishing, usually they are nice enough and dont hassle you as long as you are following the rules... which i intend on doing if i end up taking anything. that is a good idea though printing out the laws and having an id book. thanks for the input

 

[Young Frankenstein]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10514070#post10514070 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Von_Rahvin
make sure you have a print out of the rules and some sort of ID book. when i did alot of collecting the conversation when like this almost every time i got stopped.
"Sir you have some corals and that is illegal i'm going to take you to jail"
"actually no officer i can have these"
"Son, it's illegal to harvest corals in fl waters"
"Sir, i have in fact a print out of the rules from the FMP about collection policies"
"this here says you can take gorgonn somthins and zoo whatevers, you have corals not those things"
"In fact sir i have an id book and i can show you what species i collected"

so on and so forth.
you have to prove your innocence. otherwise you can get ALOT of hassle.

me. "In fact sir i have an id book and i can show you what species i collected"
officer." well it dos not meter now sir, heres your fine for $ 1.000.000.000.000 for taking the gorgonia and 45 years in slave labor."

 

[Young Frankenstein]

You know what puzzles me..... these conservationists don't go after the industry and hotels that dump a bunch of crap and pollute our oceans, and they go after someone collecting a fish or a coral. Actually last year the congress vote and allowed more pollution for manufactures, voted to decrease pollution in cars, to me thats let the big boys do what they want and have the small people pay for it. Save the oceans = stop pollution.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

I think the safest way of collecting is if theres more than 3-4 of us with the laws printed and the book with picks. Maybe we should arrange collection days and hit the Keys eheheheheh

 

[Von_Rahvin]

it's fun, just remember you have to be south of largo to collect. also there is a issue with the 3 mile exclusion zone for harvest down south. we used to go down there for a week of collecting 2 times a year. was alot of fun, and we collected alot of things. having the holding tanks set up back in the hotel was the most annoying task.

 

[scubasteve247]

if memory serves me right, just past the seven mile bridge is veterans park or something or other, either way its illegal to collect from a marine sanctuary or preserve.... so i would always check when dealing with the keys

 

[dmilne85]

usually santuarys are outlined with the yellow or orange bouie's (sp?) or if your in a park well... you know you can not collect from, so i def. will not be collecting from any places like that. more then likely i will be looking for stuff around the parmeter of key west

 

[Young Frankenstein]

That will be the day that i am gone risk my ........s swimming between sharks for a piece of gorgonia in Key West 3hrs from where i live, and i live in South Miami.