1. Personal Floatation Devices
This proposal would change the age of persons required to wear a life jacket/personal flotation device on a vessel less than 26 feet from under 6 years of age to those under 13 years of age. The proposal would parallel the recreational boating federal regulations and create a safer boating experience for children. The Boating Advisory Council supports this proposal. 2. Boating Safety Education
This proposal would modify Florida’s mandatory boating safety education requirement for persons 21 years of age and younger operating a motorboat powered by 10 horsepower or more. Beginning January 1, 2010, it would establish an eleven-year phase-in period for every vessel operator to pass a boating safety course by increasing the age requirement by 5 years of age, every year (i.e. in 2010, everyone 25 years old and younger, in 2011, everyone 30 years old and younger, etc.). As the phase-in period progresses, the boating safety education will reach a critical target audience (those 36 years of age and older) involved in almost two-thirds of Florida’s boating accidents. The Boating Advisory Council recommends this proposal. 3. Confiscation and Disposition of Perishable Fish and Wildlife Products
This proposal would include saltwater recreational cases to the law that specifies the process of confiscated fish and wildlife products that are illegally taken by violators. The proposal would allow a law enforcement agency the option to retain the confiscated fish and wildlife that are illegally harvested in recreational cases and donate it to charitable organizations, DNA labs and research facilities or use in covert buy/sell operations and K-9 training. Additionally, law enforcement would have the option to sell or destroy the evidence, if appropriate. The proposal also requires law enforcement to photograph the evidence with proper documentation and allows for such to be admissible as evidence in a court of law. 4. Seagrass Scarring
This proposal would create a penalty system for damaging seagrasses due to propeller scarring and vessel grounding in aquatic preserves. Those damaging seagrasses could be charged with a non-criminal infraction and could receive higher fines for repeat offenses within a specified period of time. In addition, a first degree misdemeanor could be charged for those scarring seagrasses as a result of willful and wanton operation of a vessel. 5. Shoreline Exemption
This proposal would repeal the shoreline exemption for recreational saltwater fishing licenses. The reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act by Congress in 2006 created a federal registration requirement for recreational anglers fishing in federal waters. The deadline for implementation is January 2009 with the authorization to collect fees beginning in 2011. States determined to have an adequate licensing system can be exempted. Recent discussions with representatives of the National Marine Fisheries Service indicate that Florida’s shoreline exemption would prevent Florida’s recreational anglers from being exempted from the federal registry. 6. Combination of Chapters 370 and 372, Florida Statutes
Chapter 370 of the Florida Statutes was created by the Legislature to authorize the Marine Fisheries Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection to regulate commercial and recreational marine fisheries. Chapter 372 of the Florida Statutes was established by the Legislature to aid the Game and Freshwater Fish Commission in its role to regulate wildlife and freshwater fisheries. When the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (Commission) was created in 1999, the two chapters were amended but not combined; however, the Legislature intended to combine them as the final step in the creation of the agency. The combination has been an on-going interim project of the House of Representatives since 2003. Because of the complexity of combining two diverse chapters, the combination was planned in steps that included repealing sections of the statutes that had become obsolete or that required rules to be promulgated first. Since the 2003 Session, several of the obsolete sections of statutes have been repealed and the Commission has passed the relevant rules, but there are still several sections that should be repealed. The combined chapter is intended to have several “parts” organized by subject matter, such as: licensing, that would include all commercial and recreational license provisions and fees; penalties, that would include all penalties for any fish or wildlife violation, recreational or commercial; freshwater aquatic life; marine life fisheries; wild animal life; law enforcement; and general provisions. A guiding principle in this endeavor is that no substantive changes would be included in the bill, i.e. no changes to the meaning of current law. Any substantive changes would have to be the subject of a separate bill. Top of page | 
