Will there be a mini-season this year???

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Local government can control access to local public facilities in the interest of public health and safety. There is a higher standard for private facilities. Do you obey temporary traffic signals on the road? Do long driveways have traffic lights?
 
Ramps are going to be open for people with the correct address on their driver's license.
I haven't read that.

It's clearly an attempt to prevent the Keys from being overwhelmed as it usually is every mini-season. Having lived there for 8 years, I can understand the wisdom behind the closures. The Keys wants to avoid the catastrophe happening in Miami Dade and this is essential for that to happen. Good luck to the Keys. No, I don't miss the lockjams during mini-season down there. Wait, I don't miss the Keys at all. :D
 
Monroe County balks on lobster mini-season cancellation request – Keys News

The commission agreed to limit access to the Upper Keys boat ramps to locals only because of a concern about day-trippers coming down from the mainland and possibly spreading COVID-19.


Ramps are going to be open for people with the correct address on their driver's license. ????
 
Monroe County The Florida Keys
NEWS RELEASE
July 21, 2020

MONROE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS SPECIAL MEETING RECAP

MONROE COUNTY, FL – Monroe County Commissioners met in a special emergency virtual meeting today to discuss protective measures for the Florida Keys with the continuing spike in cases of COVID-19. There was a record number of Zoom participants in attendance. At the meeting, the commissioners decided to not send a letter to Florida Fish and Wildlife (FWC) to cancel lobster mini season, made changes to the County’s COVID-19 Vacation Rental Plan, tweaked its mask ordinance, and closed public parks and boat ramps in Key Largo.

Monroe County sent a vacation rental plan to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) in late May that was approved for vacation rentals to reopen on June 1. Changes to the plan to be resubmitted to the DBPR will include capacity limitations of vacation rentals to two people per bedroom plus two, meaning a two-bedroom vacation rental can have a maximum occupancy of six people. The amended plan will also require that the name and telephone number of the rental manager be posted on a sign visible from the road. The signage requirement will enable neighbors, law enforcement and code compliance to direct complaints about noise, excessive occupancy, and other violations to the manager.

The County will also limit boat ramp access in Key Largo to follow the Village of Islamorada’s closures. Rowell’s Park and Bay Drive will be closed to the public, and Sunset Point and Harry Harris Park will only accessible by residents from Friday, July 24 to Sunday, Aug. 9. During this time, nonresidents will need to seek a private boat ramp or seek a public ramp elsewhere in the Florida Keys.

The Commission also tweaked its mask ordinance by setting the payable amount of a citation at $250 for violators who do not wish to contest the citation in court. The Board also withdrew a provision requiring businesses to close for three days if an employee tests positive with COVID-19 so that provision can be reworked.

Information on Monroe County’s protective measures regarding COVID-19 can be found at www.monroecountyem.com/covid19.

Kristen Livengood
Public Information Officer, Monroe County
Email: Livengood-Kristen@monroecounty-fl.gov
Phone/Text: 305-680-8226
 
I could " Foresee " Broward and Palm Beach County closing their ramps also.
It's only 2 days in the middle of the week so a small audience effected. They closed all the beaches over 4th of July.
I'm on a charter so hoping it is allowed to run.
 
TBH, never was interested in mini season. We spent a lot of Augusts down there though and never had a problem finding bugs. If I really had to do mini season and it had to be a charter I would go Jupiter or north. Bugs are bigger and there are more shootable fish once you get out of S. FL and the Keys. Better restaurants, cheaper lodging and host of other benefits exist as well. Even more options if you have boat.
 
I find lobster mini-season a subject as intense as politics or religion, generally people love it or hate it with little middle ground.

For me started in the 80's and I couldn't afford to be part of it, so it was a bucket list type of thing. By the 90's I could be part of it so I did, and loved it. Some years I got my limit others I didn't, I truly enjoyed it the same. Then I moved to the panhandle where things are just not the same, when you see a lobster up there is a monster and usually you just see 1 or 2, at least that was my case. When I came back to SE Florida was nice to be able to participate again. I can compare it to the first flowers of the season or some other yearly event, just a bit special. If they stop it, I'll just wait until regular season.

I never went to the Keys for mini-season, the stories you heard about it were wild. I wondered why? but I was younger and still thought people generally had normal IQ's. To be fair recent stories of what goes on are nothing by comparison to the 80's … or it may just be that everything in S Florida was out there in the 80's

For me the only difference between dives during mini-season and the dives the weekend before was and is that I would grab lobsters (or at least try) instead or just looking at them.

The thing is, if you read reports of how things were in the Keys BEFORE the mini-season started, (1975 I think) it was way worse. Supposedly it would be a 2 week zoo starting the 1st day of regular season. Back then you had the typical chaos seen during mini-season, with the addition of conflict between commercial and recreational harvesters. I bet that was interesting.
 
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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