US Field Permits
Florida
For questions regarding which permits are appropriate for your specific activities, contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Marine Fisheries Management department at 850-487-0554.
Recreational Fishing Licenses
Recreational fishing (via pole or spear) is quite simple in Florida. Here is the page for Recreational Saltwater Licenses & Permits and here is the page with specific information regarding spearing.
Special Activity Licenses
A Special Activity License (SAL) is required if collection plans exceed marine fisheries regulations. In order to collect Holacanthus, a SAL is required because families of ornamental reef fish such as angelfish are on the prohibited species harvest list (see Spearing page for details).
There are a few different types of SALs, but we needed a Scientific Research SAL.
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Permitting
Permitting in the Florida Keys is very tricky! There are designated marine zones and to conduct any species collections in waters along the keys in these zones requires a NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Permit Application.
For questions regarding FKNMS permits, contact Dr. Harrison Albert:
It seemed like the permit application could be filled out with Throughout sanctuary checked in Section C - Project Information Proposed location of activities:, but after email correspondence with Dr. Harrison Albert, it seems like we may need to be more specific. Email thread copied below:
March 4, 2024
Hello,
I am a first year PhD student at Northeastern University advised by Dr. Remy Gatins (CC’d here). We are planning fieldwork for July and are trying to gather information about collection sites and required permitting.
Our plan is to collect Holacanthus angelfish for my research focused on the origins of divergence between the two species in the Tropical Western Atlantic: H. ciliaris and H. bermudensis. Ideally we will collect 10-15 individuals (of each species if possible) via scuba by spearing from three different locations along the Florida Keys. Currently we are planning to collect from Tavernier with Conch Republic Divers, Layton with the Keys Marine Laboratory, and Key West with Finz Dive Center. If our collections take place at sites outside of special sanctuary zones, how do you recommend we complete the NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries permit application?
Apologies for the lack of detail regarding specific collection site information. Please let me know if we should designate specific sampling zones/coordinates in order to move forward.
Thank you in advance for your help! Looking forward to hearing from you.
Cheers, Annabel
March 12, 2024
Hello Annabel,
Thank you for your patience while I reviewed your FKNMS permitting email inquiry.
Unfortunately, this request is a bit complicated. At this time, I am not able to provide you with ONMS permit guidance until you are able to provide the FKNMS permits office with a SAL. Once / if you are able to obtain a SAL, I will also need to know the specific locations you are requesting to collect from (i.e., 4 GPS points that connect to create a polygon), especially if the collections will take place in Key Largo or Looe Key Existing Management Areas (which I would try to avoid conducting in for ease of permitting).
Please let me know once you obtain the SAL, or if FWC is able to provide you with information / guidance on whether this would be possible & issued in your requested timeline and we can proceed from there to apply for the ONMS permit.
All the best,
Dr. Harrison
To collect fish samples along the Keys outside of these special zones, no FKNMS permit is necessary. These permits seem to be especially important for any work disturbing the seafloor such as coral coring, for example, but to just spear some fish we should be good! See this email from Kyle Phillips, a scientist at the Keys Marine Laboratory in Layton, FL:
You should only need a FKNMS permit if you wish to collect specimens within special areas such as SPAs, ERs, or ROAs that’re within the sanctuary. My initial thoughts are that this won’t be necessary, we can hopefully find these fish at patch reefs outside of these special areas (still within the sanctuary), so it’s likely you’ll just need the SAL from FWC. … Just to clarify the sanctuary stuff, all sites that we would take you to are within the FKNMS. It’s just that with fish collections, you’d only need a FKNMS permit if you were disturbing the seafloor or collecting in a ‘special area’ like a ROA, ER, etc (which we shouldn’t need to do). We’ll be good though, just wanted to clear that up a bit.
- We ended up conducting all of our work in Florida with just a SAL, no NMS permit necessary. *