Catch limit, two per person and per vessel. Cubera snapper: Minimum size is 30 inches.Mangrove snapper: Minimum size is 10 inches.Red snapper: Closed in all federal waters until at least Dec.First Coast charter boats are ready to put anglers on them: That's a lot easier said than done.īut here's a snapshot of the seasons, limits and catches available to anglers off Jacksonville's coast. It would be nice to give you a crisp, clear picture of what regulations exist. So there's almost always something on the plate for charter anglers most of the year. But, for the most part, they're not involved at the same time. Here on the First Coast we do have varied - and sometimes needed - regulation. If you look at the price of locally caught fresh seafood these days, it's easy to see how $10 a pound translates into a worthwhile trip offshore for customers.Īnd fresh fish prices are skyrocketing right now because of the nearly complete fishing closure in the Gulf of Mexico, the nation's most economically important fishery. They are banking on some return on investment in the form of fresh fish dinners. On head boats such as the Majesty and Mayport Princess, especially, folks on limited incomes ante up the $75 to fish. But it can also be a means of putting fresh fish on family tables and in freezers. It's no wonder potential customers are gun-shy.Ĭharter boat fishing can be for sport and fun. And state waters extend nine miles on the Gulf Coast and three miles off Jacksonville. State rules are different in North Florida and South Florida. And rules in federal waters can be different from rules in state waters. Not only does Florida suffer from federal regulation on the Atlantic side, but the federal rules are different on the Gulf side. I watch new regulations for a living and could not recite the spate of new ones passed over the past year, handed down by the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. People who were planning vacations to the Big Bend area of the state are booking trips here and heading east.īut most local captains also agree that many of their longtime, repeat customers aren't returning because of misconceptions about fisheries regulation. Several charter captains say their business is up. Ironically - and sadly - the ugly press and uncertainty from the state's Gulf Coast is temporarily benefiting us here. Last week's vote to close a large area of offshore fishing off our coast hasn't helped. "We hear you can't catch anything anymore," is the gist of the majority of calls to charter boats. Our nightmare, however, is federal regulation, not petroleum, though most of the men and women who make a living off fishing here believe one to be about as slimy as the other. Most hear that we're pretty much closed down as well. A spate of new fishing regulations has potential customers concerned and confused. Our local fleet of charter boats and head boats is constantly fielding questions from visitors and locals alike. Ours is based on uncertainty and some bad information. On our own coast, there's also a fishing scare going on. Charter and commercial fishing boats are shut down tight. Even away from actual damage, it's a public relations problem. On our Gulf Coast, the ever-expanding specter of oil is an environmental nightmare. Galloway said lionfish feed on commercially and economically important fish, something that affects diving tourism.Florida coastal communities are taking it on the chin these days. If a large, reproductively active one was found, "there is likely more in Florida," she said. Lionfish were quick to establish an invasive presence in Florida, she said, because females can produce egg masses every four days and can release up to two million eggs a year.īut Galloway had an ominous warning about the arapaima. Katherine Galloway, a biologist at Nicholls State University in Louisiana and an expert on lionfish, said arapaima lay eggs in February, March and April, so it potentially could take them longer to establish a presence. However, they could survive in the waters of extreme southeast Florida.ĭr. The FWC said the arapaima habitats are limited by their sensitivity to cool water - they can even die in water that's 60 degrees or colder. John Cassani, head of Calusa Waterkeeper, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting waterways in the region, agreed, writing in an email that it "would seem unlikely as sightings are rare and this one may be unique to the Caloosahatchee River." "There is no evidence that arapaima have reproduced in the wild in Florida," the FWC said in an email. But that apparently hasn't happened here.
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