FWC proposes expanding spotted seatrout fishing
News Release
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Media contact: Carly Canion, 850-528-2317
(Back to Commission meeting news)
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
approved several draft amendments for spotted seatrout regulations
on Thursday that would open recreational harvest year-round and
expand commercial fishing opportunities.
The FWC has managed spotted seatrout for more than 20 years to
help rebuild overfished populations. A 2010 stock assessment of
spotted seatrout in Florida indicated that the annual management
goals for spotted seatrout are consistently being exceeded across
the state.
As a result, the FWC is proposing to increase fishing
opportunities for spotted seatrout in Florida. The proposal would
open current recreational closed months by removing the current
February closure in North Florida (Flagler through Nassau counties
and Pasco through Escambia counties) and the
November-through-December closure in South Florida (Volusia through
Pinellas counties), allowing spotted seatrout to be harvested
year-round in all areas of Florida.
In addition, Commissioners asked staff to look into increasing
the recreational bag limit in the Northeast Region, increasing the
commercial fishing season from three months to five months,
allowing sale of seatrout inventory for 30 days after the
commercial season closes, and creating a vessel limit of 150
seatrout when two licensed commercial fishermen are on board.
A final public hearing on the proposed spotted seatrout rules
will occur during the November FWC meeting in Key Largo.
More information regarding the FWC's
spotted seatrout draft rule is available in the online agenda
at MyFWC.com/Commission. A final public hearing on these rule
proposals will take place at the FWC's meeting in November.
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