Marine Fisheries Workshops
Spotted seatrout
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) needs your input on spotted seatrout management. The FWC is hosting several spotted seatrout in-person public workshops around the state. Learn about the current status of the seatrout fishery, staff’s proposal for future management and share your input by attending one of these workshops.
Workshops will begin at 6 p.m. local time:
- July 29: Destin, Destin Community Center, 101 Stahlman Ave.
- July 31: Steinhatchee, Steinhatchee Community Center, 1013 Riverside Dr.
- 6: Naples, Collier County Facilities Management, Training Room, 3335 Tamiami Trail East
- 7: Melbourne, Brevard Co. Government Center, Florida Room, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way
View the workshop presentation
Potential changes that staff will be gathering input on include:
- Splitting the northwest spotted seatrout management zone into two separate zones including the western panhandle (Escambia through Gulf counties) and the Big Bend (Franklin County through Fred Howard Park Causeway in Pinellas County near the Pasco County line).
- Moving the southern-most boundary between management zones to create the newly-renamed south Florida (Fred Howard Park Causeway in Pinellas County near the Pasco County line through Broward County) and central east coast (Palm Beach through Volusia counties) zones.
- Reducing bag limits
- Western Panhandle: 5 to 3 fish
- Big Bend: 5 to 4 fish
- South Florida: 4 to 3 fish
- Central East Coast: 4 to 2 fish
- Northeast: 6 to 5 fish
- Changing the current recreational and commercial slot limits to 15 inches to 19
- Current recreational slot limit is 15 to 20 inches (with one over 20 inches allowed)
- Current commercial slot limit is 15 to 24 inches
- Prohibiting all harvest of spotted seatrout 19 inches and larger
- Prohibiting captain and crew from keeping a personal bag limit on a for-hire trip
- Re-establishing the February closure in Western Panhandle
If you can’t attend an in-person workshop, provide online comments at MyFWC.com/SaltwaterComments.
Seatrout map regions:
- Yellow: Western Panhandle: Escambia-Gulf counties
- Purple: Big Bend: Franklin County - Fred Howard Park Causeway
- Orange: South Florida: Fred Howard Park Causeway - Broward County
- Blue: Central East Coast: Palm Beach County - Card Sound, Volusia County
- Green: Northeast: Flagler-Nassau counties
Red line: state water boundary
Map not to scale. State waters extend from shore to 9 nautical miles in the Gulf and from shore to 3 nautical miles in the Atlantic.
Biscayne National Park
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is hosting public workshops to gather input on the future management of fisheries in Biscayne National Park.
All workshops start at 6 p.m. local time:
Aug. 6: Coral Gables, Newman Alumni Center, University of Miami, 6200 San Amaro Dr.
Aug. 7: Florida City, City Hall, 404 W Palm Dr.
Aug. 8: Key Largo, Murray Nelson Government Center, 102050 Overseas Highway
Learn more:
July 2019 Commission Meeting Presentation
Summary of the Biscayne National Park (BNP)
Fishery Management Plan (FMP)
Proposed Trapping and Trawling Regulations for Biscayne National Park (BNP)