wild collection..

[jiffy]

I'm interested in the rules and regulations on wild collection of inverts and seahorses and pipefish in the Florida region..

I know you can collect about 5 polyps of soft coral per day as long as u have a fishing license.. but that's about all I know..

 

[KLR]

Im not sure but my lfs is close to the beach and they have tourists who bring TONS of things to them,right now they have around 5-6 Frilly Looking seahorses. One time they had roughly 100 starfish,another 20+ Giant Hermit Crabs.

I would think since seahorses and pipefishes are fish,a fishing license would cover them BUT they may have a limit aswell. Im not sure on the inverts...

 

[jiffy]

yea someone that recently bought some coral from me, was telling me "you can go out to ft.desoto and drag ur nets through the grass beds at low tide and the seahorses and pipefish pop right up." I went to one of the local fish stores and I got in a conversation with the owners son and he said just a couple years ago you couldn't find seahorses around Florida because people would catch these slow moving fish and dry them out and use their exoskeletons as tourist souvenirs and decorations. so they put rules and regulations on them and that's why the population has grown so much, but he wasn't sure on the rules either..

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

I wish i could find a spot by our house in florida to go collect.... the only problem would be getting it home LOL

 

[jiffy]

lol yea I couldn't even keep my blue leg hermits alive for a few days that I caught when I was down in the keys. although my dad did forget to put the pump in the ice chest the first night lol.

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Hahahahaha

 

[jiffy]

bump

 

[Dave3112]

**EDIT** link didn't work. Sorry. Looking for one that does

 

[Dave3112]

OK this one works

Recreational Harvest of Marine Life (Aquarium) Species

 

[jiffy]

thanks for the link Dave, but I seen that list was from 2009 is it up to date? and I didn't see seahorses or pipefish listed...

 

[Dave3112]

Thats the latest one I could find. If you had any questions about anything I'm sure that you could call the local fish ans game office.

 

[jiffy]

k thanks for looking around for me Dave, and thanks for all the help.

 

[Dave3112]

k thanks for looking around for me Dave, and thanks for all the help.

Anytime! I was at "work" and as you can tell I was "busy". LOL

 

[jiffy]

lol

 

[Palancar]

Here is a link to the pdf of current regulations.
http://myfwc.com/media/1451467/July2011_SWRegulations.pdf

 

[jiffy]

thanks but that looked more like fishing regulations, didn't say anything about corals...

 

[Palancar]

It is in there I found it before I posted the link.

 

[jiffy]

k I'll look again

 

[BlazinNano]

State of Florida only required the collection of 5 polyps per day of soft coral. No hard coral or rock can be collected at all. Also if I remember right no purple or orange seafans can be collected. 20 ornamental fish can be collected daily but no more then 10 of the same species. Also if I remember queen conchs are illegal to collect as well.

 

[pumarjr]

I live in key west, you can collect these species. you may also take softies, some hards corals (very few), inverts and such. there are a few items completely off limits, pipefish,seahorses are not one of them.