This is crazy, our tax dollars at work

[Ted_C]

“Licensed facilities and legal business can be checked to ensure animals are handled safely and humanely,” said FWC Capt. Rett Boyd, who supervised the operation. “But unlicensed facilities go without inspections for safety and cleanliness. And without a record of where they got their animals, these facilities could potentially spread dangerous diseases through their transactions, without any way to track the source of the problem."

From the way I read BlueCoast's post - this is not the case - unless a business management practice (BMP) submitted to the Dept of Ag covers those points regarding safety / cleanliness / disease / chain of custody.

If your intentions are to sell aquacultured products, certification can be obtained regardless of the size of your operation as long as you are following our Best Management Practices (BMPs). We do ask for a business plan.

 

[ZeroBullChip]

I'm all for having to have a license to own an exotic species that can compete with the locals if released. Perhaps that could be where the exception for hobbyist selling to hobbyist can come from. But as the law is written and what it was written for, vs how they choose to enforce it to me still seems to be grey as is, and I don't like it when the law man comes into a grey area and tells us how it is. That is not his job.

 

[installman]

There is no grey area. The law is very clear if you are going to sell you need a license. The law was written to protect our ecosystem and the State of Floridas best interests. I agree it needs an update, but getting mad at the FWC for enforcing the law is like getting mad at the police for enforcing the speed limit. Do what you want, odds are you will not be bothered just as most are not bothered for speeding unless they go too far. But if you do get busted try explaining to the FWC why they should not ticket you because you disagree very strongly with the law they are enforcing.

 

[asmodyus]

But if you do get busted try explaining to the FWC why they should not ticket you because you disagree very strongly with the law they are enforcing.

This is America and you can disagree with any law as long as you have the legal resources or money. The point of all this is we the hobbyist strongly disagree with this law and really the only thing we can do is write to are legislators or take them to court and try and force a change like today and cell phones.

 

[snake1]

Is there anyone that is computer/internet smart to create a online petition and we could call on the fellow Florida reef central users to sign it....

 

[pugcrush]

What's the regulations on freshwater? A lot of invasive species to FL come from freshwater. Just curious if any official rules on fish or freshwater plants? INTRODUCING can be magnified 1000 times worse than REMOVING. Look at the lionfish problem & countless invasive freshwater fish.

I'd say 90% or more of livestock in the hobby isn't even native to the Caribbean. You hear a lot about bogus (but real) city laws that shouldn't be in the book. Let's say it's illegal to walk a pig on a leash on a public sidewalk (just made that up). These are just ridiculous but never enforced.

The above is comparing apples and oranges, but there's just bigger fish to fry.

I snapped this pic at MACNA last year. This guy was ruining some folks weekend on the last day, literally first thing in the morning. He was picking out certain vendors - some out of state & some in, so I'm not really sure what was the rhyme or reason.

 

[aguila88psi]

Probably a vendor or a LFS that's selling at the event called them in to eliminate competition

 

[installman]

Probably a vendor or a LFS that's selling at the event called them in to eliminate competition

+1 if smeone calls in a complaint they will show up to check it out. Could have also been someone who just felt like stirring things up. I believe the rules for freshwater are the same btw.

 

[snake1]

Are on spot foxface rabbit fish native to Florida waters