Last summer, concerned citizens, dive companies and fisheries researchers spoke up in favor of additional Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) marine rules to protect the lemon shark in state waters.

A recent NOAA Fisheries Service study showed the lemon shark to be among the 33 most vulnerable Atlantic sharks, due to increasing fishing pressures.

“Because they take a dozen or more years to mature and have only a few pups every few years, and because 40 percent to 60 percent of them don’t survive, we examined a more conservative approach for this species,” said Aaron Podey, FWC fisheries analyst.
Thus began the making of a fishing regulation.

One problem was that bag limits on other species made boat captains more inclined to go after lemons. Sandbar sharks were fished out for their grade-A meat. Along came some shark restrictions. Even rules to protect grouper prompted anglers to target other species such as lemon sharks.

The most effective way to protect them is with state regulations, Podey noted. That’s because 90 percent of them aggregate (cluster) within three miles of shore, in state-regulated waters. Near-shore aggregations make the sharks easing picking.
Preliminary data from an ongoing University of Miami tagging study found that at least 7.5 percent of tagged adult lemon sharks from a Southeast Florida aggregation succumbed to fishing mortality in one season.

“At that rate, that lemon shark aggregation could be harvested in a few years,” Podey said.
So, on Feb. 18, the FWC approved a rule to prohibit all recreational and commercial harvest of lemon sharks in Florida waters. The rule takes effect March 23. People can still fish for lemons in federal waters, where they are more spread out and therefore less vulnerable.

The FWC based other recent shark regulations on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Plan for Atlantic Coastal Sharks. The state-water restrictions that took effect in January are for recreational and commercial harvesters. They prohibit the harvest of sandbar, silky and Caribbean sharpnose sharks. The rules establish length limits for most recreationally harvested sharks and make hook and line the only allowable gear.

For more details about Florida’s recent shark-management actions, go online at MyFWC.com/Rules and click on “Fishing – Saltwater.”


An important aspect of fishing regulations, Podey said, is coordination with federal and other states’ rules. For instance, state waters are typically closed to commercial harvest when federal fisheries close their adjacent waters. Coordination between state and federal fisheries agencies allows for more effective enforcement of fishery regulations and speeds the recovery of targeted species.

“The FWC’s focus is protecting nursery and spawning waters, which tend to be within the three-mile state-waters boundary,” Podey said.