FWC: Florida/Bahamas Regulations (Read before making the crossing!)

[cmfish]

Clarification of Bahamas regulations and how Florida regulations apply when returning to the states from FWC:

http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/regulations/bahamas/

[kitespearo]

Thanks for this. It does clarify a lot of the questions we have every year

[fishspearit]

Interesting that the FWC link states the Bahamas reef fish limit is 60 pounds, just as the fishing regs on the Bahamian Government's website http://www.bahamas.com/bahamas/regulations-0 , but as this recent thread shows, http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=141798 they are putting a 20 pound limit on the fishing license.

[stevemc1]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. The problem is the Bahamas dont really have a place that is up to date to look up the regs. But when you get your cruising permit they dont even tell you about the change. 20 lbs of bottom fish period. But it does say 6 pelagics. But still you dont want to get busted for anything in either country.

[Surface Tension]

Thanks for posting.

[flamencoguru]

So is that saying if we're 6 guys on the boat that we can only bring back 20 hogfish and 10 lobsters?

I don't know if the trip will be worth it. It breaks down to 3.33 hogfish/diver and 1.67 lobsters/diver....

I'm all about conservation but this is ridiculous...

[fishspearit]

Originally Posted by flamencoguru

So is that saying if we're 6 guys on the boat that we can only bring back 20 hogfish and 10 lobsters?

No, that's 20 pounds of hogfish, or .33 hogfish per diver, or one marginal grouper per boat and no hogfish. Or you can shoot one nice grouper per boat and risk being fined.

[stevemc1]

And dont forget the $3000 fine per offense. And the price of fuel, especially at outposts that are not near anything else. There is a reason I am not going back this year. 20 lbs of fish is not much. Nor is 6 lobster.

[slingnsteel]

i thought it was 20lb of fillet or 60lb of fin fish?

[faster7581]

thats about useless.. why even bother making the trip, other than to say you did it..

[stevemc1]

It is 20 lbs of fish total per vessel, it doesnt state cleaned or not. I will take pictures of the cruising permit fishing rules and post it here tomorrow. I found out in August of 2011, and found out when 2 law enforcement officers got on my boat,and asked me for my cruising permit. It showed the total weight of 20 lbs per vessel max. I stated that I never was told that, never told what it was, read a newspaper( The Abaconian) and there was an article stating 60 lbs of fish total per vesssel for foregeiners. But when the law enforcement officers showed up, they asked for my cruising permit, and they showed that to me. I looked and the 2010 cruising permit did not have that or any rules. But I do know it was 60 lbs prior to talking to these law enforcement guys who wanted a bribe. They told me it was $3000 dollars per offence. We were able to talk our way out of it, we showed them the newspaper article, that came out a couple weeks prior, 2010 cruising permit, and I stated they(customs) never said anything to me, and there was no new posters on the wall at the customs office in West End, just same ones they have had for years. I will take some close up pics of that tomorrow.

[djsmits305]

ONLY 10 LOBSTERS?! Jesus, how long has that been true?

[stevemc1]

It has always been a fairly small per day allowance forever. I have been diving the Bahamas since the 60s, my parents even farther back , and it was always that. The Bahamas makes their living off the sea. It has always been what you could eat in a day, it was never a lot of fish. The 60 lbs of fish, I dont know when that was written, but it has been what a boat coming back could have. The 20 lbs of fish total is a bit tight. The conch and lobster has always been about what it is now. It was never more than a 1 day limit per person on the boat, Florida limit, since Florida has had a limit. That is all Florida would recognize. Since right after the Muriel boat lift about 1980 and the huge Cuban influx, and the Cuban blackmarket in lobster, conch and fish, and all the seafood in the Keys instantly became scarce, Florida made Queen Conch a No Take animal. They really wiped it out. And about that time the CITIES (Convention In Trade In Endangered Species) convention was written. So really it has been illegal to import queen conch into Florida without proper paperwork since then, just wasnt really a big deal until the last few years. In a nutshell, the Bahamas doesnt want any commercial harvesting, just what you could eat in a day.

[fishspearit]

Originally Posted by stevemc1

The 20 lbs of fish total is a bit tight....

Nice understatement. The 20lb limit isn't just tight, it's absurd. It means that every Bahamas trip report ever posted on spearboard is illegal. It also means that if the Bahamians were to actually enforce the limit they could fine almost every boat that goes over there.

[stevemc1]

This a pic of the paragraph about fish limits on the 2011 cruising permit from the Bahamas. It says per person, but it is per vessel. That helped us get off. Second is the front of the cruising permit, showing the date.