The Florida Sport Spiny Lobster mini-season last Wednesday and Thursday is over. Regular spiny lobster season starts Aug. 6 and runs through March 31. FWC plans to ramp up its efforts to combat poaching and trap robbing this season. The FWC plans to patrol the nearshore waters in a boat with a hydraulic trap puller and…
An extensive public awareness initiative has begun to help leisure Florida Keys travelers and residents have an enjoyable, safe and non-impacting experience during both the two-day Spiny Lobster Sport Season and the traditional lobster harvesting season. A dedicated website, KeysLobsterSeason.com, includes interactive videos with need-to-know dive and boating safety tips, up-to-date rules, regulations for lobster hunting…
There seems to be no debate among Florida lobster aficionados concerning how to cook this delicacy of the sea. “You have got to grill them,” said restaurateur Frank Chivas. “There is no other way.” But Chivas and his longtime friend Tom Pritchard, the creative force behind many of his restaurants, disagreed on the next step. “I like…
The antennae sticking out of the hole gave the creature away. So with great caution and care, I placed my tickle stick behind the Florida Lobster and tried to gently coax it into my net. But with one flip of its tail, it shot out between my legs like a cartoon crustacean, leaving nothing but…
This article isn’t specific about the Florida Keys but most of the information matches what you would do here. Once lobster season rolls around in Florida, the excitement [for Kayak Lobstering] couldn’t be any more on fire. Being the popular thing to do (with a nice payout) many head to the Florida Keys to go…
To paraphrase a famous novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I, all quiet on the Key’s front. After an opening salvo on July 29 and 30 followed by an eight-month season from Aug. 6 through March 31, all that will change. An armada of all manner of water craft, large…
Danger time for Florida Keys spiny lobster arrives Wednesday and Thursday when an estimated 30,000 divers here don masks and fins for lobster mini-season. Source: Get ready for the onslaught of lobster hunters
A study published earlier this year by a state biologist says the durability of lobster traps contributes to a high number of unintended sea life deaths each year. Casey Butler’s study, “Effects of Ghost Fishing Lobsters in the Florida Keys,” was published Jan. 7 in the ICES Journal of Marine Service. “We’ve found that the…
The main difference between the Florida Keys Spiny Lobster and the American or Maine Lobster are the front claws. American / Maine lobsters have large front claws. Florida Keys Spiny Lobsters do not. Clawed lobsters are known as cold water lobsters, while Florida lobsters are known as warm water lobsters. Florida lobsters are caught for…
We are well into the Spiny Lobster and Stone Crab seasons. The prices should have stabilized after the high prices of the beginning of the seasons. The Chinese play a role in Spiny Lobster prices, but also they are learning how to play the [lobster] game. Last year Stock Island-based commercial lobster fisherman George Niles…
On Oct. 1, an amendment to the Florida statute pertaining to Spiny Lobster harvest went into effect, giving authorities more latitude in prosecutions for those who harvest undersized spiny lobster. The new legislation, SB 1470, sponsored by Rep. Holly Raschein and Sen. Jack Latvala, and championed by many in the Keys, specifies that each undersized…
The beautifully marked Caribbean Spiny Lobster has long been a Florida seafood favorite and is arguably one of the state’s most important fisheries. Thousands of harvesters flock to the Florida Keys each year during the sport and regular season to experience some of the best lobstering in the world. Many divers, like the one in…
Florida’s Spiny Lobster season kicks off Aug. 6 and, once again, commercial fisheries are trying to get their hands on these savory critters. FIU marine scientist Heather Bracken-Grissom offers insight on one of the state’s most iconic and economically lucrative marine animals. Lobsters are large marine crustaceans. They have a hard, external skeleton that supports…
We’ve talked about exercising extra caution, both on the water and off, due to the influx of tourists partaking in lobster mini-season last week. This week, add to your boating attentiveness the presence of commercial lobster trap gear. August 1, the commercial lobstermen splashed their fresh gear for the eight-month recreational and commercial lobster season…
The 2018 Florida spiny lobster season opens with the two-day recreational sport season July 25 and 26, followed by the regular commercial and recreational lobster season, which starts Aug. 6 and runs through March 31. Planning on catching some of these tasty crustaceans? Here is what you need to know before you go. No one…
The commercial harvest of the Florida Keys’ most lucrative sea creature Florida Lobster was up this year, but the price fishermen were paid was way down, they said. The recreational and commercial harvest of spiny lobster will close at midnight Thursday, March 31. The commercial harvest is expected to be about 5.9 million pounds, up about…
Florida Keys [anglers] residents spoke out on dolphin fish harvests, lobster bully-netting, lionfish problems and grouper seasons when meeting with state fishery managers last summer. Wednesday in Panama City Beach, board members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will consider whether to act on any of the concerns gathered at a statewide series…
The harvest of spiny lobster off the Florida Keys has never been better, but the price fishermen are being paid is down significantly so far because the Asian market has yet to take off this season. The season started earlier this month with trap fishermen catching near record number of lobster, fishermen said. A trap…
Four Homestead men aboard a 15-foot skiff off North Key Largo were arrested Sunday on multiple conservation charges Sunday, state marine officers report. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers recovered a mesh bag from the bottom of Angelfish Creek, agency spokesman Officer Bobby Dube said. The bag held undersized lobster, snapper and grouper….
A push to end lobster mini-season in Florida Keys waters drew the notice of Monroe County Planning Commissioners on July 29. Planning Commissioner William Wiatt urged his fellow commissioners to speak to Monroe County commissioners in support of “a working group … to discuss and evaluate the current regulations, specifically in county waters, that govern…
