Spiny lobster sport season around the corner

The Spiny Lobster season was a little more chaotic than expected.

Creatures of the world often carry many names people decide to give them. Some of these names are confusing. Some of them are redundant. For a certain lobster, you may have heard of one of its names.

“We were at the beach,” the song goes. “Everybody had matching towels / Somebody went under a dock / And there they saw a rock / It wasn’t a rock / It was a rock lobster.”

Yet, with this fine name in existence and the title of a hit song, the lobster is known to state and federal regulators as the spiny lobster, and it’s spiny lobster season in Florida. There’s a two-day recreational sport season July 27 and 28, then the regular commercial and recreational season that begins Aug. 6 and runs through March 2023.

“Spiny lobster season is an exciting time for anglers of all ages to be on the water,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Commissioner Robert Spottswood said in a statement. “It’s also a great time to practice safe boating and take care around Florida’s coral reefs.”

Details about the two-day sport season and the regular season are available through an FWC website. For the sport season, there’s a six lobster bag limit for Monroe County and Biscayne National Park, but 12 for the rest of the state. 

The carapace must be larger than 3 inches, as measured in the water, for someone to harvest that lobster legally. 

“When lobstering in open water,” the FWC advises, “divers should stay within 300 feet of a properly displayed divers-down flag or device and within 100 feet of a properly displayed divers-down flag or device if near an inlet or navigation channel. 

“Boat operators traveling within 300 feet of a divers-down flag or device in open water or within 100 feet of one on an inlet or navigational channel must slow to idle speed.”