December 4, 2008
Contact: Lee Schlesinger, 850-487-0554
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) on Thursday proposed a series of draft rule amendments for the marine life (aquarium species) fishery. These proposed rules are intended to enhance the FWC's existing marine life regulations to help maintain the health of Florida's important coral reef ecosystem.
Members of the commercial marine life industry have been proactive for years in coming to the Commission with ideas and recommendations to protect the fishery and promote the conservation of marine life resources.
After considering recommendations made by its Marine Life Workgroup, composed of marine life fishery stakeholders, and receiving comments from the public, the FWC is proposing a series of draft rule amendments that would add new fish and invertebrate species to marine life regulations, establish or change size and bag limits and gear specifications for several marine life species, and make other administrative and technical marine life rule changes.
Florida's marine life fishery involves the taking of live fish, invertebrates and plants - mostly for aquariums. The fishery occurs primarily within coral reefs, which are one of the most biologically diverse and valuable ecosystems on earth.
The FWC considers it essential to conserve Florida's coral reefs by reducing the harm fishing and other human interactions can cause to these ecosystems, and is continuing its long collaboration with the marine life fishing industry to implement management regulations to preserve this fishery.
The FWC is proposing to add several species to the marine life rule, which means that commercial harvesters of these species would need a marine life endorsement to collect them. These species also would be included in the marine life recreational bag limit. The species proposed to be added include:
porcupine fish,
spotted burrfish,
black brotula,
key brotula,
yellow stingray,
blackbar soldierfish,
red mithrax crab,
emerald crab,
red ridged clinging crab,
the star snail lithopoma tectum,
all hermit crabs (except land hermits) and
nassarius snails.
The proposed rules also would:
lower the minimum size limit for Cuban hogfish from 3 to 2 inches total length,
raise the maximum size limit for butterflyfish from 4 to 5 inches total length,
establish maximum size limits of 9 inches total length for tangs and 12 inches total length for parrotfish,
lower the daily commercial bag limit for angelfish (gray, French, blue and queen) from 75 per person and 150 per vessel to 50 per person and 100 per vessel,
change the daily commercial bag limit for butterflyfish from 75 per vessel to 50 per person or 100 per vessel (if two endorsement-holders are aboard), and
establish a commercial daily vessel limit of 400 for dwarf seahorses.
The rules also propose:
lowering the commercial daily bag limit for condylactis anemones from 400 to 200 per vessel, and
establishing commercial daily bag limits of:
400 per vessel for emerald crab,
one gallon per person and two gallons per vessel for lithopoma tectum (added to the current star snail bag limit), and
one quart per person and two quarts per vessel for scarlet reef hermits.
Other proposed rules recommended by FWC staff and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary include specifying that ricordea (a soft coral) and all corallimorph polyps must be taken as a single polyp only and establishing a commercial daily bag limit for all corallimorph polyps of 100 polyps per person or 200 per vessel (if two endorsement-holders are aboard).
They also recommend establishing a commercial daily bag limit for zoanthid polyps of one gallon of polyps per person or two gallons per vessel (if two endorsement-holders are aboard), and requiring that the only gear allowed for collecting zoanthid and all corallimorph polyps should be a flexible blade no wider than 2 inches, such as a paint scraper, putty knife or razor blade.
In addition, the proposed rules would allow the harvest of ornamental sponges north of Egmont Key in the Gulf of Mexico to be taken with a 1-inch amount of substrate beyond the holdfast and a 1-inch-thick piece of substrate below the holdfast of the sponge. Taking ornamental sponges with substrate would not be allowed in waters south of Egmont Key.
Finally, the proposed rules would:
allow recreational harvesters to take no more than five of any one marine life species daily within the 20-organism aggregate bag limit and possess no more than a two-day bag limit (up to 40 marine life organisms),
allow live rock harvest from an aquaculture lease site to count towards the requalification of the marine life transferable dive endorsement,
allow quinaldine to be used only by marine life dive and non-transferable dive endorsement holders, and
apply other technical rule changes.
The FWC will hold a final public hearing on the proposed marine life rule amendments in February in Destin. The Commission gave flexibility to staff to consider input it received at its meeting on Thursday and incorporate additional rule amendments as appropriate prior to the final public hearing.
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