......I'm about to be in the same situation as a non-hunter but lionfish eradicator, and don't want to have to get the annual license......
I’ll try to lay this out the best I can. In the end it would be really nice to have the FWC provide a clear statement on Lionfish. There at 3 components to the issue that have to be addressed and met in order for a diver to be legal and dispatch a lionfish without having a valid saltwater fishing license. In the end, if you are stopped by an FWC officer, you will need to speak and reference actual statues and not some internet forum opinion by me. In the past, the FWC has not allowed the definition of ‘possession’ to be finally determined by the courts, and instead it is left as judgment issue by the officers in the field.
The 3 components are Gear, Restricted Species, and Possession/Harvest.
1)
Gear- Under section
68B-14.005 ( c ) spearing is an allowable gear type to harvest fish. This means that a spear is a allowable gear under the law.
2)
Restricted Species - Under section
68B-14.001 (2) Lionfish is not on the legal list of ‘restricted species’. This means that there is no size, quantity, or dates restricted. Lionfish can be killed at any time, any size, and any number.
3)
Possession/Harvest
This is the section that is open to interpretation by field officers. Here is my opinion:
68B-47.001 Definitions.
As stated in this chapter:
(1) “Harvest” means the catching or taking of a fish by any means whatsoever, followed by a reduction of such fish
to possession.
The key and most important word is possession. This term is not clearly defined by the Statues. If you spear a lionfish and leave it in the ocean, you have met the requirement for reduction, but you have not met the threshold of “to possession” by leaving it in the ocean where you shot it.
In my opinion, if you do not bring the lionfish up to the boat, but instead leave it for the crabs and other fish to consume, you have not taken possession of the fish and therefore you do not need a license to spear them underwater.
This question really needs to be put to FWC since it is a license question. I have taken the above information and submitted it to FWC for a legal opinion. If I get it in writing, I’ll post it back on here so that other’s can print it out to bring on the boat incase they are stopped.
It would have been really nice if the FWC would have addressed and clarified this issue when they changed the rules and allowed hunting lionfish by permit inside the Key’s sanctuary boundaries, but they did not.