The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) was established on July 1, 1999 to combine the state's management efforts for all fish and wildlife into one agency. Previously, the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission managed freshwater fish and wildlife, and the Department of Environmental Protection managed saltwater fish, aquatic mammals (e.g., manatees, whales, dolphins) and saltwater wildlife (e.g., seaturtles, lobsters, conch). The Marine Fisheries Commission meanwhile was involved in setting regulations for saltwater fish and wildlife. Now all of those functions are combined along with fish and wildlife law enforcement in the FWC.

As part of the ongoing effort to become more efficient, the FWC reorganized its administrative regions as of January 1, 2001. The new regions are shown on the map. Regional addresses and phone numbers are listed below.

Northwest Region
3911 Highway 2321
Panama City, FL 32409-1658
PHONE: 850/265-3676

Northeast Region
1239 SW 10th St.
Ocala, FL 34474-2797
PHONE: 352/732-1225

North Central Region
Route 7, Box 440
Lake City, FL 32055
PHONE: 904/758-0528

Southwest Region
3900 Drane Field Rd.
Lakeland, FL 33811-1207
PHONE: 863/648-3203

South Region
8335 Northlake Blvd.
West Palm Beach, FL 33412
PHONE: 561/625-5122.OFF THE INTERNET

The WorldWide Web provides a tremendous amount of information to help anglers plan their fishing trips in Florida. For starters, visit the FWC at www.state.fl.us/fwc/. From there, you can buy fishing licenses on line, or you can select freshwater fishing and find freshwater fishing rules, to identify freshwater fishes and about their life histories, to get fishing tips, fishing news, find fishing sites with quarterly forecasts, get updates on fisheries projects, and learn where our boat ramps, piers and fish management areas are. Other links take you to important information about fishing permits, our offices and what programs are housed there, frequently asked questions and answers, a calendar of fishing events, and a huge number of fishing related links.

By choosing saltwater fishing from the FWC home page, you will have access to their regulations, planned public meetings, quarterly newsletter and information about artificial reefs.

If you instead choose to visit the Marine Research Institute, a wealth of information on marine species including coral, fish, invertebrates and mammals will be available, as well as some GIS-information.

Some especially good public sites also include Florida's tourism site at www.visitflorida.com, the www.eAngler.com site .