MIAMI – Grab your tickle stick. Florida’s two-day lobster mini season formally will get underway Wednesday.
The leisure two-day season begins on July 27 at 12:01 a.m. and ends at midnight the next day. The common season begins August 6 yearly and runs by means of March 31.
While Florida has three styles of lobster, state wildlife officers say that almost all fishermen favor the Florida spiny lobster, also referred to as the Caribbean spiny lobster.
The spiny lobster inhabits tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Normally, the perfect time to catch a Florida spiny lobster is at evening since lobsters keep of their dens throughout daylight to keep away from predators and solely come out after darkish to search for meals.
According to state legislation, throughout the two-day sport lobster season, divers and snorkelers can take as much as six lobsters per particular person day in Monroe County and Biscayne National Park, 12 per particular person per day for the remainder of Florida.
Learn extra about bag limits, dimension limits, the place to reap, and different rules at MyFWC.com. If you intend to lobster within the Keys, one other nice useful resource is the Monroe County Tourist Development Council web site KeysLobsterSeason.com.
Don’t overlook to get your license and spiny lobster allow at GoOutdoorsFlorida.com.
There are quite a few rules for lobster harvesting.
One is that if the carapace or shell of the lobster is just not 3 inches or extra you possibly can’t take them. And hold your eyes open for diver’s flags.
“This is the most important symbol everybody’s going to see when they’re out for mini season. This means there are divers in the water actively harvesting,” mentioned Florida Fish and Wildlife spokesman Tyson Matthews.
When lobstering in open water, divers ought to keep inside 300 ft of a correctly displayed divers-down flag or machine and inside 100 ft of a correctly displayed divers-down flag or machine if close to an inlet or navigation channel Â
Don’t overlook to make use of care round corals and different marine life. The FWC launched the Florida Coral Crew to have interaction sportsmen and ladies within the effort to fight Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease.Â
Other Regulations:
- Divers should possess a measuring machine, and lobsters have to be within the water whereas they’re measured.
- Taking egg-bearing females is prohibited.
- The spiny lobsters should stay in entire situation till they’re delivered to shore. Any machine that may puncture, penetrate or crush the shell of the lobster might not be used.
- Night diving is just not allowed in Monroe County. Additionally, there isn’t a lobster looking in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Dry Tortugas National Park, no-take areas within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and within the Biscayne Bay/Card Sound Lobster Sanctuary throughout each the 2-day sport season and common season.
- You will need to have a leisure saltwater fishing license and a spiny lobster allow.
- Safety gear equivalent to flares, life jackets, and hearth extinguishers are required to be on board the vessel.
- Dive flags should measure a minimum of 20 x 24 inches and be mounted on the very best level of a ship or a minimum of 12 x 12 inches if the flag is within the water.
Click Here for extra lobster mini season guidelines and rules from the FWC.