Florida Commercial Fishing

Florida commercial fishers landed about 96.5 million pounds of seafood worth $240.5 million at the dock in 2024, which ranked Florida sixth among states by dockside value.

Those figures come from the 2025 Florida Seafood Quick Facts published by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which draws on National Marine Fisheries Service and FWC landings data (FDACS Florida Seafood Quick Facts). The report calls the 2024 total a 16.32 percent decrease from 2023 and a 3.4 percent decrease over the past decade, and puts Florida's average price at $2.49 a pound, sixth among states. Alaska led the nation by value. The same report gives the 2024 weight as 96.5 million pounds in its executive summary and 96.4 million pounds in its economic impact section.

FDACS estimates that the 2024 dockside value supported 2,981 Florida jobs, more than $8.9 million in business tax revenue and $365.2 million in total economic impact (FDACS). Florida's west coast landings made up 23.2 percent of the value of the whole Gulf fishery in 2024, behind Louisiana, while the east coast accounted for 3.6 percent of the Atlantic fishery but 22.1 percent of Florida's own commercial landings by value.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the FDACS 2025 seafood quick facts, the FWC commercial fisheries FAQ, trip ticket and landings pages, the FWC stone crab and spiny lobster commercial rules, and the BLS 2025 QCEW fishing files.

Stone crab was Florida's most valuable commercial catch on the west coast in 2024 at $41.2 million, and rock shrimp led the east coast at $9.7 million.

On the west, or Gulf, coast the top three species were stone crab, spiny lobster at $30.6 million and red grouper at $16.0 million, which together made up 52.6 percent of west coast value; the top 10 species totaled $166.8 million (FDACS Florida Seafood Quick Facts). Blue crab led the west coast by weight. On the Atlantic side, rock shrimp, northern white shrimp at $6.5 million and king mackerel at $5.9 million made up 54 percent of east coast value, and the top 10 east coast species totaled $61.9 million.

Stone crab also holds the top spot on both coasts by value per pound among species that sold more than $1 million (FDACS). The report is not consistent on the year: its executive summary introduces the west coast top 10 as species landed during 2023, while the detailed section and chart present the same list as 2024 landings. October through February was the busiest period of 2024, with 48.6 percent of the value of all seafood landed in Florida, and those five months were the busiest for crab, lobster, shrimp and mullet.

Monroe County led Florida in 2024 with $56.4 million in seafood landings, a margin FDACS describes as nearly 2-to-1 over second-place Pinellas County.

FDACS reports that seven of the top 10 seafood-producing counties are in the southern half of the state and that Monroe accounted for 25.9 percent of all Florida seafood production; FDACS attributes Monroe's margin primarily to multi-million-dollar hauls of spiny lobster, snapper, crab, shrimp and mackerel (FDACS Florida Seafood Quick Facts). The 2024 county values were Monroe $56,394,017; Pinellas $23,476,994; Hernando $11,781,035; Duval $11,621,962; Brevard $10,734,212; Collier $8,975,423; Bay $8,348,324; Hillsborough $7,238,285; Lee $6,947,012; and Manatee $6,890,588.

By port, the National Marine Fisheries Service list cited by FDACS ranks Key West, Tampa Bay, Fort Myers, Mayport and Cape Canaveral as the leading Florida ports by landed value, with the caveat that the list does not include every Florida port and that Cape Canaveral was not tracked in 2021 (FDACS). FWC's own landings files assign each catch to the county where it first came ashore, and say the boundary between the east and west coasts has historically been drawn at the line between Dade County and Monroe County (FWC commercial landings).

FWC issued an average of 10,685 commercial saltwater licenses a year over the last five license years, and an average of 5,078 Saltwater Products Licenses accounted for all commercial landings.

The license figures come from FWC's commercial fisheries FAQ (FWC commercial fisheries FAQ), which also explains that fishers may sell their catch only to wholesale dealers licensed by FWC, some of whom need matching federal dealer permits, and that only sales to licensed wholesale dealers count toward the Restricted Species Endorsement.

Federal payroll data count wage jobs at fishing businesses, not license holders. In the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages for 2025, Florida's private fishing industry (NAICS 1141) had 231 establishments, 348 jobs and average annual pay of $47,662, with jobs down 29, or 7.7 percent, from 2024 (BLS QCEW 1141). Finfish fishing accounted for 76 establishments and 121 jobs at $48,697 average pay (BLS QCEW 114111), and shellfish fishing for 52 establishments and 103 jobs at $43,397 (BLS QCEW 114112). Monroe County had 36 fishing establishments, the most of any county in the file, though the file shows no job or pay figures for it.

Every sale of seafood from Florida waters must be reported on a Marine Fisheries Trip Ticket, and since July 1, 2025 all trip tickets go to FWC electronically through its free VESL software.

FWC has collected commercial landings and effort data since November 1984 under section 379.362(6), Florida Statutes, and rule 68E-5.002 (FWC trip ticket program). Each ticket records the harvester, the buying dealer, the date, the county of landing, the area fished, gear, time fished and the pounds or numbers of each species. The new reporting requirements were approved at the September 2024 Commission meeting.

FWC's landings page says the mandatory trip ticket program began in late 1984 and that 1986 is the first official year of landings; earlier summaries are on the NOAA Fisheries website (FWC landings in Florida). Calendar year landings are considered final as of July of the following year but can still be revised. Landings are reported in pounds of whole weight, except sponges in pieces, stone crabs in claw weight, and clams and oysters in meat weight.

The commercial stone crab season is closed May 2 to October 14, and the commercial spiny lobster season is open August 6 to March 31, under FWC rules.

Stone crab harvest is claws only, with a minimum claw size of 2 7/8 inches, and claws may not be taken from egg-bearing females (FWC stone crab commercial rules). There is no bag limit, and traps may be placed and baited 10 days before the season opens. During the closed season, a licensed dealer may keep selling claws only if they entered inventory before May 2.

Spiny lobster trap fishers have no daily bag limit, while bully net fishers are limited to 250 per vessel and dive fishers to 250 per vessel in state and federal waters off Broward, Dade, Monroe, Collier and Lee counties; the minimum size is a carapace larger than 3 inches or a tail longer than 5 1/2 inches (FWC spiny lobster commercial rules). Commercial lobster harvest requires a Saltwater Products License with a Restricted Species endorsement and a Crawfish endorsement, or the dive or bully net version. Both FWC pages still carry a 2024-2025 season update banner announcing new trap tags for commercial lobster, stone crab and blue crab traps beginning January 1, 2024, so a reader checking for a newer season notice should confirm the dates directly with FWC.