Keys city to the state: Please cancel lobster miniseason
For two days at the end of every July, thousands of people come to South Florida, particularly the Florida Keys, to hunt for their bag limit of spiny lobster.
The annual event began decades ago and was aimed at bringing tourists to the region during the slower summer season and to ease tensions between recreational and commercial lobster anglers in advance of the regular eight-month season, which begins Aug. 6.
While lobster “miniseason” does boost the economy, many locals fear and hate it because it also brings with it mayhem and crowds on the water, congestion on U.S. 1, poaching and other headaches.
Officials in one municipality are especially concerned that this year it may also bring increased cases of the novel coronavirus.
“When you think about the debacle of a pandemic, this would be the worst possible ever, bringing people from throughout the United States,” said Ken Davis, a member of the Islamorada Village Council.
Davis and his four colleagues voted unanimously Wednesday during a council meeting to ask the state to cancel mini-season, held the last Wednesday and Thursday of every July since the mid 1970s.
Although COVID-19 cases in the Keys pale in comparison to neighboring counties like Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, numbers have spiked since the sheriff’s office took down two checkpoints on June 1 that blocked tourists since late March.
The day before the checkpoints were taken down, Monroe County had 108 confirmed cases of COVID-19. According to the latest Florida Department of Health information, that number is now 322, and cases rise by more than a dozen every day.
The good news is hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively low. As of Friday, five people sick with COVID-19 were being treated at the Keys’ three hospitals. The death count from the disease in Monroe was also five on Friday, according to the health department.
But Keys officials don’t want to risk enabling the virus to spread more throughout the island chain. Most events commemorating Independence Day this weekend, including parades and fireworks displays, have been canceled, and beaches, parks and boat ramps up and down the archipelago are closed.
The county’s Tourist Development Council also agreed this week to pause advertising efforts aimed at attracting visitors to the Keys for about two weeks.
While beaches and other public spaces are expected to open back up by Tuesday, Islamorada officials said this week that allowing miniseason to happen later this month is a potential invitation to disaster.
It may be too late to stop it this year, however. Davis said the letter from the village to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ only went out Thursday. The governor’s office could not be immediately reached for comment.
That said, Islamorada officials say independent of COVID-19, it may be time to end miniseason.
“It was a way to get tourists down here, and it became widely successful,” said Councilman Chris Sante. “And, now it’s become a rape, plunder and pillage kind of miniseason, and it’s getting worse.”
Councilwoman Deb Gillis agreed.
“We’ve probably outgrown needing miniseason,” she said.
It’s unclear if other municipalities will follow Islamorada’s lead and ask DeSantis to cancel miniseason this year. Davis said Key West Mayor Teri Johnston told him the six Southernmost city commissioners agreed it should not happen this year.
Islamorada’s council is also sending a letter to Monroe County’s five-member commission asking it to request the event be called off.
Asked Friday if the county commission would take up the issue, Monroe Mayor responded in a text, “Don’t know. Taking the day off.”
Miniseason is scheduled to take place this year on July 29 and 30. The hunt officially begins at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Anglers are allowed to either dive/snorkel for the clawless crustaceans or bullynet them from a boat. Diving and snorkeling for lobsters at night is prohibited in the Keys during miniseason, however.
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The same restriction does not apply for the rest of the state and in the Keys after miniseason.
The bag limit in Monroe County and Biscayne National Park is six per person, per boat. In the rest of Florida, it is 12 per person. Lobsters must be boated alive and whole. Spearfishing for them is also prohibited.
Anglers cannot keep egg-bearing lobsters.
To keep a lobster, its carapace — the part that is not the tail — must be at least three inches long, and the measuring must take place in the water.
All lobster anglers must possess a Florida recreational saltwater fishing license as well as a lobster permit.
This story was originally published July 3, 2020 at 5:53 PM.
