FWC approves dolphinfish rule changes for Atlantic state waters

At its March meeting, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) approved regulation changes for dolphinfish in Atlantic state waters.

Changes effective May 1 include:

• Reducing the recreational daily bag limit from 10 to 5 fish per person.
• Reducing the private recreational daily vessel limit from 60 to 30 fish per vessel.
• Clarifying in rule that captain and crew bag limits are prohibited statewide.

In recent years, stakeholders have expressed concerns about seeing fewer and smaller dolphinfish in southeast Florida and the Keys, and FWC recreational landings analyses support these observations.

For more information, including the March 2022 Commission meeting presentation, visit MyFWC.com/Commission and click on “Commission Meetings.”

For current recreational dolphinfish regulations, visit MyFWC.com/Marine and click on “Recreational Regulations” and “Dolphinfish.” This page will be updated with the new regulations when they take effect.