Keeping Fish

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iluvtheocean

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Hollywood, FL
# of dives
25 - 49
I was thinking if you had a cabin boat that you were on for a few days & did some fishing from it either by hook or spearing -- and want to eat your catch on the boat, any regulations on it? specifically thinking FL state & federal waters. i know the catches have be be legal size, but there's no way to prove one way or another i thought if it's consumed onboard -- what about carcass disposal, etc?
 
The daily (24 hr) bag limit still applies and if you are on a multi day trip you better be able to proof you have been out there over 24 hrs.
We would do multi day trips to Bimini and the immigration docs were our "proof". We were never stopped so YMMV.

We would also keep the whole carcasses of any fish we would eat at sea. Of course disposing of it is easy enough, but we chose to err in the side of caution.
You never know who's looking when you least expect it. You're supposed to keep the fish whole until you dock.

Daily Bag Limits for Extended Trips

I'd say stay well within the daily limits.

How would you proof you're in a multi-day trip during the first day? :)
 
Sure you can consume and eat your fish on your boat>>>>>>after it's landed in whole condition. An example for many of us is our bugs are landed whole and all we have to do is touch the dock. Then we start ripping the tails off and tossing the heads overboard. Same with fish, you just need to touch land/dock with your boat/hand and then fire up your boat grill for the freshest sea food ever!!

I thought you were going to ask a harder question like how do you get to keep a 2 day rec limit with a cabin boat?? :D
 
Sure you can consume and eat your fish on your boat>>>>>>after it's landed in whole condition. An example for many of us is our bugs are landed whole and all we have to do is touch the dock. Then we start ripping the tails off and tossing the heads overboard. Same with fish, you just need to touch land/dock with your boat/hand and then fire up your boat grill for the freshest sea food ever!!

I thought you were going to ask a harder question like how do you get to keep a 2 day rec limit with a cabin boat?? :D

that's with "touching" land though....

here's a more concrete example i was thinking of -- leaving on sat morning, returning sometime sunday
I take a cabin boat to the spot and decide to shoot a hog (staying within the daily limits/sizes) and i want to have him for dinner that night while staying anchored at the spot. I'm staying at the spot overnight cause want to get an early morning dive in the next day before heading in. if you're on the boat and have tossed the bones overboard and the filet is in your stomach -- there's no proof one way or another for anything it seems. you can do what LVW said and keep the carcasses of what you eat... i think as long as what is currently on the boat if you're checked isn't over the limit, it should be ok? proving you've been out 2 days -- gps tracking maybe?

now i know if i'm targeting lionfish my question is a moot point...
 
Unless the feds come up while you are cooking the fish.

Off NC I have been stopped and they checked my catch for length, etc. Had a couple large fish that I kept the pieces attached to each other along the spine fortunately.
 
Wow... back in the days when I was fishing and spearfishing, I never gave thought to the issue of cleaning and cooking my catch out at sea (well, except on my personal boat which had no facilities to do so). A more interesting question than I would have guessed.
 
unfortunately i don't have my own boat yet.. but thinking of the future... and how soon I might have waterfront property here :(
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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