Florida’s FWC Decides to Make it Easier for Florida Veterans to Become Commercial Fisherman
Florida veterans wishing to enter the commercial fishing industry may soon be able to do so more easily thanks to changes made today at the Sept. 5-6 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) meeting in Tampa. These changes are anticipated to take effect on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2012.
The Commission implemented a new program that will modify income requirements for Florida veterans seeking a commercial restricted species endorsement license.
The restricted species endorsement allows commercial harvesters to fish for and sell species that are designated as restricted.
Spanish and king mackerel, flounder, shrimp, dolphin and several reef fish are among the list of species that require a restricted species endorsement.
Currently, commercial harvesters attempting to qualify for a restricted species endorsement license must have a Florida Saltwater Products License, which is Florida’s commercial saltwater fishing license, and be able to attribute $5,000 or 25 percent of their total annual income during one of the past three years to sales of saltwater products.
With the new changes in place, restricted species endorsement income requirements will be waived for one license year (July 1 – June 30) for Florida veterans who were honorably discharged between Sept. 11, 2001, and June 30, 2014. After June 30, 2014, this income requirement waiver will continue to extend to Florida veterans so long as they apply within four years of an honorable discharge.
The one-license-year waiver also extends to honorably discharged veterans with service-connected disabilities. After the one-year waiver expires, veterans with service-connected disabilities will have a reduced income requirement of $2,500 instead of $5,000. To qualify for these exemptions, veterans must be certified by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Armed Forces to have at least a 10-percent disability that is service-connected.
To learn more about commercial fishing requirements, visit MyFWC.com/Fishing and click on “Saltwater” and “Commercial.”
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission came into existence on July 1, 1999 - the result of a constitutional amendment approved in the 1998 General Election as part of the package proposed by the Constitution Revision Commission.
In the implementation of the Constitutional Amendment, the Florida Legislature combined all of the staff and Commissioners of the former Marine Fisheries Commission, elements of the Divisions of Marine Resources and Law Enforcement of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and all of the employees and Commissioners of the former Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.
Five years later, after consulting stakeholders, employees and other interested parties, the FWC adopted a new internal structure to address complex conservation issues of the new century. The new structure focuses on programs, such as habitat management, that affect numerous species. It will focus on moving the decision-making process closer to the public and did not require any additional funding or additional positions.
