Yes. If you are 16 or older and you fish for sharks from shore in Florida, including from a pier, a bridge or a jetty, FWC requires you to pass a free online course and then carry a Shore-based Shark Fishing permit. The permit itself costs nothing and must be renewed every year. You do not need it if you are fishing for sharks from a boat.
Two things about this rule catch people out, and both are worth knowing before a ranger asks.
Florida residents 65 and older are normally exempt from needing a recreational saltwater fishing license. That exemption does not carry over here. FWC states the shore-based shark permit is required for all shore-based shark anglers age 16 and older, “including those 65 and older who are normally exempt from needing a fishing license.”
If you have fished this coast for decades on the senior exemption and you now want to target sharks off the beach, this is a separate requirement you have to go and get.
This is the part almost nobody knows. FWC requires the same permit for anyone 16 or older fishing from shore for any species while doing any of the following:
So a tarpon or goliath-class setup fished off a Southwest Florida beach can put you inside the permit rule even if a shark never touches the bait. If your rig meets any of those three descriptions, get the permit.
Anglers younger than 16 are not required to obtain the permit. They are still required to take the online educational course, unless they are fishing with someone who holds a Shore-based Shark Fishing permit.
Pass the Shark-Smart Fishing course at FWC’s learning site, and you are then prompted through to FWC’s online licensing system to claim the no-cost permit. Budget a little time for the course rather than trying to do it in the parking lot, and remember the annual renewal.
Shark fishing carries gear rules that apply whether you are on the sand or on a boat:
Non-offset, non-stainless-steel circle hooks are required when targeting or harvesting sharks with live or dead natural bait. Non-stainless matters because a hook left in a fish should eventually rust out.
A device capable of quickly cutting the leader or hook is required equipment when targeting sharks. Bolt cutters or cable cutters qualify. This is not a suggestion, it is listed as required gear.
Hook and line only. Harvest with a treble or any other multiple hook in conjunction with live or dead natural bait is prohibited.
Chumming is prohibited when fishing for any species from the beach. Not just for sharks. From the beach, for anything.
The bag limit is one shark per person per day, with a vessel limit of two sharks regardless of how many anglers are aboard. Harvestable species fall into size-limit groups: eight species including Atlantic sharpnose, blacknose, blacktip, bonnethead and finetooth have no minimum size, while bull, nurse, spinner, blue and several others carry a 54 inch fork length minimum.
The prohibited list is long and includes fish you will genuinely encounter here: great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead, smooth hammerhead, lemon, tiger, sandbar, dusky, silky and sand tiger among many others. FWC’s instruction on these is unambiguous. Prohibited species must remain in the water with the gills submerged, whether you are on shore or on a vessel, and must be released without delay when fishing from shore. If removing the hook would delay release, cut the hook or cut the leader as close to the hook as you can.
FWC’s own guidance goes further: treat any catch you cannot identify as a prohibited species and release it.
FWC is blunt that piers and bridges are poor places to catch and release a shark, because the deck sits high above the water and handling becomes difficult. Their guidance is not to bring a large shark up onto a pier or bridge at all. Walk it to the base of the structure before removing the hook or cutting the line. A pier net can be used to lift small sharks for hook removal and to lower them back down.
If you are picking a spot, our fishing locations directory lists which Florida piers, bridges and shore access points are actually open, including several Southwest Florida piers that have not reopened since Hurricane Ian.
Sea turtle nesting season runs March through October. During those months FWC asks anglers fishing from shore to use only amber or red lighting. That covers a lot of the year on this coast and it applies whether or not sharks are the target.
The shark permit does not replace a fishing license. You still need a Florida saltwater fishing license unless an exemption applies to you, and the senior exemption that covers the license does not cover this permit. See our Southwest Florida fishing license guide for who is exempt from what, and our regulations page for current limits across the other species you are likely to catch from the same spot.