Florida Shark Fishing

Florida has changed the shark fishing regulations. Here are the latest regulations:

New shark regulations took effect January 19, 2010 statewide for all recreational and commercial harvesters. These regulations:

• Prohibit all harvest of sandbar, silky, and Caribbean sharpnose sharks,
• Require sharks to be landed in whole condition, this includes landing sharks with heads and tails intact.
• Established a minimum fork length of 54 inches for all sharks except Atlantic sharpnose, blacknose, blacktip, bonnethead, and finetooth, as well as smooth dogfish;
• Made hook and line the only allowable gear for harvesting sharks and prohibited the use of natural bait when using multiple hooks, and
• Commercial updates - changed season dates, required wholesale dealers to have a federal permit, and closed state waters to commercial harvest when ASMFC or NOAA Fisheries closes adjacent waters.
• Effective March 21, 2010, all harvest of lemon sharks in state waters is prohibited.

Here's a 4 page PDF file which list species and further regulations:

Florida Shark Regulations

Florida Bull Shark Fishing

Sharks are valuable resource and need protection. Practice catch and release and handle such fish carefully. Here are two more guides to aid you fishing for sharks in Florida. They are identification and description guides.

Florida Shark Identification Guide (PDF)

This second guide is in color and accurately describes these fish.

Common Sharks: Color Guide