Dive boat industry files suit
Florida’s dive industry is suing to block a new state policy that could force charter boats to pay for vessel-fishing licenses.
The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association and South Florida dive operator Jeff Torode filed a lawsuit Monday in Leon County circuit court against the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The case centers on a commission memo last month that could require charter dive boats to spend hundreds of dollars on licenses if their passengers want to catch spiny lobsters and fish.
Eilene Beard is co-owner of Pensacola’s Scuba Shack and a diving boat. She said Florida diving operators, including the local ones, are trying to “rectify this situation” through the lawsuit.
Boat operators in the past relied on their customers to have their own fishing license when they took them out to spear fish.
Beard said about three years ago, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission began citing vessels for not having charter boat fishing licenses and requiring dive boat operators to purchase the license or not allow people to fish on dive trips.
Beard said a license is too expensive for most dive boat operators. It would cost $803.50 annually for a license for her 50-foot boat, that carries 20 divers. A license for smaller boats with six passengers is about $400, she said.
Scuba Shack no longer allows customers to fish. Only two dive boats in town have licenses.
“It’s very upsetting to our customers who can no longer spear fish,” she said.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction, as a “mini” lobster season is scheduled July 27-28. The lawsuit says the state has not required such licenses for at least two decades. It says the new policy “places hundreds of dive charter vessels in the position of either purchasing licenses for their vessels, pursuant to the new interpretation of the law “ยป or risk receiving a citation if they fail to do so.”
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