You don't need any permits to collect softies, zoos and inverts and some fish /plants, you just need a florida fishing license. Check out the FWC website and the restrictions and daily bag limits are all listed there for you.

thats what i thought also snook, thank you for confirming this, do you know if there is a site like that for south carolina?

Most states have some sort of department in charge of such things, usually something along the lines of a department of enviroment, conservation, natural resources or fish and wildlife or some such. Those are the folks you usually need to check with.

i have looked for sometime now trying to find a website like that one for here lol

Ace,

I am not sure about SC, but just contact the dept. wildlife for SC and they can give you the info.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10884634#post10884634 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by roblack [/i]
[B]It is illegal in FL to take any corals or liverock without a proper permit, and from what I understand they are not issuing new permits. Some people have old permits that are still legal. The only exception I know of is those who are granted permits for educational and research purposes. Personally, I am glad the state strictly regulates such practices, our reefs here need some time to recover. However, if conditions do not improve, I would support the collection of local corals to preserve them in private aquaria and hopefully reintroduce them when the environment could sustain them. I talked with someone who works with the state of Florida's aquaculture program about getting permits to collect coral, grow it out, and replant them in new/other areas where they are depleted or gone. I was told that I was not the first to come up with this idea, but it would be unlikely that anyone other than those from a research or educational institute would be granted such. [/B][/QUOTE]


The problem with the idea and the reason that they wont even consider it is that once it enters the aquarium setting there is no guarentee that it wont be in contact with something from the pacific... wether it was fish, corals, sand, rock, algae... anything. With that contact comes the chance of introducing something into the wild that could become an invasive species. That in itself could potentially cause more harm than any amount of collecting if the wrong thing was accidently introduced. This is why only state and educational facilities can get permits to collect, because they are stricly limited on what comes into contact with the corals, where as for private entities there is no way to guarentee.