Don Kelly's Ozello Shrimper | Recreational Shrimping Equipment and Information

If you want to shrimp commercially in Tampa Bay, you had better have had secured a license before June 30^th, 1992 and renewed it every single year since.  If not, you are out of luck.

On that date, a moratorium on the issuance of new commercial shrimping licenses in Tampa Bay was issued.  This was an effort to protect Tampa Bay from the damaging effects of commercial shrimping and help to rebuild the environmental balance in the estuary.  We at Ozello Shrimper remember fighting commercial shrimpers for space out on the flats, at times coming within feet of the passing boats dragging their chains.

Well, 18 years have passed since this law went into effect and the numbers of shrimpers have dwindled significantly, down to four (from six last year) authorized vessels divided among three total license holders in a total of two families.  As a result, each year recreational shrimpers ask the same basic question when they see one of our commercial counterparts go by:

"Is that shrimp boat I saw out there legally allowed to shrimp?"

It's a fair question considering how long it has been since a new license has been issued and how few shrimpers are still out there.

To help you answer this question Ozello Shrimper is providing the vessel idenfication numbers for each of the boats that are authorized to operate in Tampa Bay during the 2009-2010 season. This information was provided to us by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission through a routine public records request.  Each of these licenses is currently valid until June 30^th, 2010 although they are most likely to be renewed.

FL2885DK  

FL0787FE  

FL6675KG  

FL4134DD

Report Wildlife Violations:
1-888-404-FWCC (1-888-404-3922)
Cellular phone users, call *FWC or #FWC.