Florida Cities Can Ban Shark Fishing

In February, Miami Beach became at least the fifth municipality in Florida to prohibit land-based shark fishing gear on its beach, in addition to many more that have banned this gear on piers and the entirety of Martin County. Miami Beach joins Redington Shores, Indian Shores, Treasure Island, and Delray Beach, which passed its shark fishing ban in 2009, in close collaboration with Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC).

Marco Island was actually one of the earliest Florida cities to ban shark fishing, with a local ordinance in 2008. Despite an electronic sign periodically posted at the Jolley Bridge, this law was largely unenforced and nullified in a closed-door code review in 2024, citing state preemption.

It has been debated in Marco Island whether cities have the authority to ban shark fishing, considering a state law that prevents cities from ‘preempting’ or reaching over the authority of the state to regulate “the taking or possession of saltwater fish”. However, the statute on this matter explicitly qualifies that it “does not prohibit a local government from prohibiting, for reasons of protecting the public health, safety, or welfare, saltwater fishing from real property owned by that local government.”

In other words, the state law is intended to say that a municipality cannot dictate things like size and catch limits, for example, declaring, “bonnethead sharks are protected” or “the catch limit for tiger sharks is two per day.” That would regulate the taking or possession of fish. But it can certainly say “shark fishing equipment, as defined under state law, is prohibited on the beach.” Indeed, many cities have and these regulations have been upheld, despite challenges, for over 15 years.

While Marco Island may not own the public beach, other cities that have banned shark fishing do not either. This does not mean they have no authority to regulate it. The Florida Office of Attorney General has issued official opinions supporting this authority, stating a municipality “may regulate in a reasonable manner the public beach within its corporate limits seaward of its duly established erosion control line to protect the public health, safety, and welfare”. This is far beyond where Marco Island residents seek to regulate shark fishing gear, on the public beach above the high tide line, inland of state waters, and well within city limits.

Furthermore, shark fishing activity on Marco Island is commonly practiced with illegal methods. Fishermen on Marco Island claim they are not chumming, which is banned under state law, but residents and visitors – who regularly encounter the remains of small, unprotected shark and ray species butchered to bait larger sharks – point out that fishermen often discard fish parts in the water, which an FWC officer agreed meets the legal definition of chumming in its shark fishing awareness seminar on March 2nd.

Furthermore, state laws prohibiting removal from the water of prohibited shark species, such as hammerheads and tigers – or the delay of their release for photos – are routinely violated on Marco Island and openly posted online. In its seminar, FWC mentioned several instances of Wildlife Alert reports describing legal killing of blacktip sharks, but declined to comment on others, including posts clearly depicting staged photoshoots of hammerheads, tigers, and lemon sharks on the sand. A 2017 scientific social media analysis documented 389 illegal shark handling incidents posted in a Florida Facebook group in a 5-year time frame.

These regulations are critical, as the most comprehensive study to date showed nearly a quarter of sharks caught and released by land-based shark fishing methods died within six weeks. In January, an adult tiger shark washed up dead on Marco Island, which witnesses described as bleeding from the tail. This is consistent with injuries from a tail rope, frequently used by fishermen to drag sharks onto shore. FWC collected the shark for necropsy, but has not released its laboratory results, which may provide biological indicators of the cause of death.

Finally, Marco Island has local laws prohibiting lights in turtle nesting habitat and use of aircraft on the beach, both of which are also regularly violated by shark fishermen in social media postings. Drone fishing is also a  federal crime.

Considering the ubiquity of illegal activity associated with shark fishing on Marco Island, the widely shared sentiment of residents against this practice, and at least five precedent local shark fishing bans in Florida, it is within the clear legal authority of Marco Island City Council to introduce an ordinance prohibiting shark-specific fishing equipment, following the example of neighboring municipalities across the state.