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Marine Life Regulations

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Requirements for Recreational Marine Life Harvest:

Recreational saltwater fishing license
Organisms must be landed and kept alive
A continuously circulating live well, aeration or oxygenation system of adequate size to maintain these organisms in a healthy condition
Allowable Gear: hand held net, drop net, rod, barrier net, slurp gun (use of quinaldine is prohibited)*
Bag Limit: 20 organisms per person per day; only 5 of any one species allowed within the 20-organism bag limit
Possession Limit: 2-day possession limit, 40 total organisms, no more than 10 of any one species allowed
Allowable substrate: see species specifications in table
Closed areas: Some closed areas exist**
Sale of recreationally caught marine life organisms is prohibited
Regulations apply in federal waters

* Some organisms have additional gear limitations, see chart.

** Various closed areas exist. See regulations for Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park and Florida’s State Parks before collecting in these areas.

Additional rules apply to the collection of shells containing live organisms in Lee or Manatee counties.

See MyFWC.com for FAQs about marine life harvest and information about collecting shells with live organisms.

Marine Life — Fish
Species	Remarks1	Size Limits (total length unless otherwise noted)
Angelfish	No more than 5 per person per day in any combination	Gray, French Angelfish: 1½–8″ slot limit Blue, Queen Angelfish: 1¾–8″ slot limit Rock Beauty: 2–5″ slot limit
Butterflyfish		1–4″ slot limit
Filefish/Triggerfish	Except Gray and Ocean Triggerfish
Gobies		Maximum size limit: 2″
Hamlets/Seabasses	Except reef fish2 and Longtail Bass
Jawfish		Maximum size limit: 4″
Parrotfish		Maximum size limit: 12″
Porkfish		Minimum size limit: 1½“
Pufferfish, Burrfish, Balloonfish, Porcupinefish	Includes Sharpnose Pufferfish, Striped Burrfish, Spotted Burrfish, Balloonfish, Porcupinefish
Tangs and Surgeonfish		Maximum size limit (fork length): 9″
Wrasse/Hogfish/Razorfish	Except Hogfish Snapper	Spanish Hogfish: 2–8″ slot limit Cuban Hogfish: 3–8″ slot limit
Other Marine Life fish include1: Basslets, Batfish, Blackbar Soldierfish, Blennies, Brotulas (Black and Key), Cardinalfish, Clingfish, Cornetfish, Damselfish, Eels (Moray and Snake), Frogfish, Hawkfish, High-hat/Jackknife-fish/Spotted Drum/Cubbyu, Pipefish, Reef Croakers, Seahorses, Sleepers, Yellow Stingray, Sweepers, Toadfish, Trumpetfish and Trunkfish/Cowfish.

Marine Life — Invertebrates
Species	Remarks1
Anemones	Corallimorphs and Zoanthids: No more than 5 polyps of each may be landed per person per day, must be harvested with a flexible blade no wider than 2″. Corallimorphs must be harvested as single polyps only.
Conch, Queen	Harvest prohibited
Corals, Hard (Stony)	Harvest prohibited
Corals, Soft (Octocorals)	No more than 6 octocoral colonies per person per day in any combination; harvest of attached substrate within 1″ of base is permitted; harvest closes when quota met.
Crab, Hermit	Except Land Hermit Crabs
Crab, Horseshoe	Harvest prohibited
Live Rock	Harvest prohibited
Octopods3	Except Common Octopus
Sea Fans	Harvest of Venus Sea Fan and Common (Purple) Sea Fan prohibited
Siphonophores/Hydroids	Harvest of Fire Coral prohibited
Sponges	Except Sheepswool, Yellow, Grass, Glove, Finger, Wire, Reef and Velvet Sponges; no more than 5 sponges per harvester per day in any combination; harvest of substrate within 1″ of base permitted north and west of the southernmost point of Egmont Key, no substrate allowed south of Egmont Key
Starfish3	Harvest of Bahama Starfish (Cushion Sea Star) prohibited
Urchins3	Except Sand Dollars & Sea Biscuits; harvest of Longspine Urchin prohibited
Other Marine Life invertebrates include1: Brittlestars3, Decorator (Furcate Spider) Crab, False Arrow Crab, Green Clinging (Emerald) Crab, Nimble Spray (Urchin) Crab, Red Mithrax Crab, Red-Ridged Clinging Crab, Spotted Porcelain Crab, Yellowline Arrow Crab, Fileclams3, Upside-down Jellyfish, Nudibranchs/Sea Slugs3, Sea Cucumbers3, Sea Lilies, Cleaner/Peppermint Shrimp, Coral Shrimp, Snapping Shrimp, Nassarius Snails3, Starsnails3, Featherduster Worms and Calcareous Tube Worms.

Marine Life — Plants
Species	Limits
Algae, Coralline Red	One gallon of tropical ornamental marine plants per day in any combination; 2 gallon maximum possession limit
Caulerpa
Halimeda/Mermaid’s Fan/ Mermaid’s Shaving Brush

1 Unless otherwise noted, combined bag limit of 20 marine life fish and invertebrates per person per day, only 5 of any
one species allowed. A 2-day possession limit also applies (40 total organisms, only 10 of any one species).

2 Such as groupers, snappers, seabass and amberjacks. Must abide by regulations for these species.

3 Bag limit of 2 live shells of any single species per harvester per day in Manatee County. Harvest prohibited in Lee County.

Regulations in red are new this year.

Purple text indicates an important note.

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