FWC

Gov. DeSantis signs order making many hunting and fishing licenses 50 percent off through Jan. 3

Florida black bears are beginning to increase their activity as fall descends on Southwest Florida.

With Tropical Storm Helene is predicted to make landfall in Florida on Thursday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is urging all vessel owners to secure their watercraft before the storm reaches the coast.FWC Southwest Region Public Information Officer Bradley Johnson highlighted the importance of moving any vessel, from kayak to fishing boat, away from tidal waters and increasing security measures to limit damages. He offered crucial tips for those who are unable to trailer their boat.

The School Fishing Club Program is an annual educational grant program that teaches youth anglers about best fishing practices to help ensure the future of fishing in Florida.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking Floridians to report all sightings of wild turkeys between now and Aug. 31. This includes hens (with or without poults or young turkeys) and bearded turkeys.

Investigators from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission unraveled an organized fraud case involving the state's prized Osceola turkey, leading to multiple felony charges against four Southwest Florida individuals.

When Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act into law in the summer of 2021, the occasion was met with a flurry of glowing headlines and general celebration by conservationists across the state. But the effort to protect the integrity of Florida’s landscape is a race against time. It remains entirely legal to develop land within much of the corridor’s boundaries, even if such development would destroy the landscape-scale connectivity the law is meant to preserve. The corridor, in other words, remains under siege by development. And the state and federal governments have not been too eager to stop it.

Fort Myers Police were monitoring a black bear in the area of Broadway and Victoria Avenue in the city Monday morning.Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission officers managed to corral and tranquilize the animal to be transplanted elsewhere.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials hope they are seeing decreased incidents of what are described as “erratically spinning fish” and smalltooth sawfish deaths in the Florida Keys. Gil McRae, director of the commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, told commissioners Wednesday that a decrease in incidents of spinning fish the past two weeks could be a sign “we're on the tail end of this event.”