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Commercial Wholesale and Retail Dealers

Are you a new wholesale or retail dealer? Are you an existing commercial dealer who needs information? Find out how to comply with the law for reporting your catches of saltwater products. Download useful information to aid in your reporting.

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The Marine Fisheries Trip Ticket Program

Photo Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)

Commercial fisheries landings and fishing effort data have been collected by the state of Florida since November 1984. Florida law (Chapters 370.021, .06(2)(a), 370.07(6)(a), and Administrative Code 68E-5.002) requires that all sales of seafood products from the waters of Florida must be reported on a Marine Fisheries Trip Ticket at the time of sale. Trip tickets include information about the harvester, the dealer purchasing the product, the date of the transaction, the county in which the species was landed, time fished, and pounds of each species landed for each trip. Completed tickets are mailed to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, where they are processed.

Important Reporting Facts

• A Florida wholesale dealer license is necessary to purchase products from licensed Florida fishers.
  
  
• A valid Saltwater Products License must be presented to the wholesale dealer each time products are sold. Wholesale dealers may check on the status of a Saltwater Products License number at the Bureau of Commercial Saltwater Licenses. https://public.myfwc.com/CrossDOI/CSL/LicenseCriteria.aspx
  
  
• The wholesale dealer must keep and report records of each transaction (purchase) in such detail as is required by FWC rules. These transactions are recorded on marine fisheries trip tickets.
  
  
• Sales are recorded on the trip ticket and imprinted with the fisher's Saltwater Products License number. The dealer must present a copy of the trip ticket to the fisher.
  
  
• Wholesale dealers working from company-owned vessels must also keep and report records of landings of saltwater products—even in cases where a "sale" is not technically made. The wholesale dealer should report this information on marine fisheries trip tickets.
  
  
• Retail dealers producing their own products for retail sale (saltwater products, bait, marine life) must keep records of their landings and report them.
  
  
• Dealers who purchase product in other states from Florida licensed fishers should report such landings to the FWC if not required to do so in the state where the product was landed. This ensures that fishers are properly credited with out of state landings of saltwater products.
  
  
• Wholesale dealers may need corresponding federal dealer permits to purchase certain species in certain areas. Information about federal permits can be found at the National Marine Fisheries Service Web site: http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov
  
  
• All records are confidential and exempt from the Open Records Act (Florida Statutes, Chapter 119) by F.S. 370.07. Dealers and fishers can obtain their reported landings information by contacting the Trip Ticket Office toll-free (866)447-5514 (see the table below for request for release of landings data).

How do I report?

There are two ways to report your commercial fisheries information: standard, paper, marine fisheries trip tickets or a computer program. FWC marine fisheries trip tickets are provided, at no cost, to all who are required to report. If the user pays all associated forms costs, personalized marine fisheries trip tickets may be authorized for use. Please view the following examples of approved reporting forms:

• FWC Marine Fisheries Trip Ticket (66 KB)
• Detailed Explanation of Marine Fisheries Trip Ticket (78 KB)
• Approved Dealer Trip Ticket (12 KB)
• Approved Dealer Marine Life Trip Ticket (17 KB)

To download Adobe Reader, visit http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

The Trip Ticket Office sends postage-free business reply envelopes to dealers so the dealers can return completed trip tickets. The last two (2) copies of each completed trip ticket must be returned to the Trip Ticket Office within 10 working days of the final day of the previous month. For example, dealers reporting September's harvested saltwater catch information on trip tickets have until the tenth working day of October to submit the information to the Trip Ticket Office. Although some may report more frequently (for example, weekly) if desired, monthly reporting is required for all dealers. Weekly submissions are required for saltwater products managed under quotas.

Computer Reporting

When commercial trip ticket reporting began in 1984, a computer program was developed to allow dealers to enter saltwater products data. The information was copied to a disk provided by FWC, and it was mailed in a disk mailer—free of charge—to FWRI. By 2000, about 70 dealers were using the program,Dockside. In February 2003, a new, Windows-based program was developed to allow users to submit trip ticket data via modem rather than traditional mail delivery. The new program called Trip Ticket, was developed by Claude Peterson, currently with Bluefin Data LLC, and is available on compact disc (CD) or by electronic download. The program is free to any interested commercial dealer in Florida. Currently there are 196 program users. Prior to using this computer program, all interested commercial dealers must call the Trip Ticket Office to obtain a unique dealer prefix. Dealer prefixes are necessary to identify unique electronic trip tickets among the many program users.

Computer Program Contact Numbers and Information:

• Call the Trip Ticket Office at (727)822-8783 or toll-free at (866)447-5515 to obtain a dealer prefix.
  
  
• Contact Claude Petersen from Bluefin Data, at (225)744-0807. Trip Ticket is handled by this contact.
  
  
• Download the Trip Ticket  program manual (308 KB).

Additional Dealer Information

Commercial wholesale and retail dealers can use the resources available for download in the table below to aid with trip ticket reporting. There is a list of all the commercial gear types used to harvest saltwater products. Maps are available for reporting Florida fishing areas and counties where the saltwater products are brought ashore. Commercial food fish and marine life species codes are available in numeric and alphabetical order. New wholesale and retail dealers can download the questionnaires to send to the Trip Ticket Office in St. Petersburg, Florida. In addition, individual fishers and wholesale dealers can download the necessary release forms to obtain their own commercial landings information. Please note that these forms need to be notarized and the original must be received at the Trip Ticket Office before commercial landings data will be sent.

Commercial Dealer Resources
List of Gear Types	35 KB
Florida Fishing Area and County Map	228 KB
Biscayne Bay Area Map	578 KB
Key West Area Map	355 KB
Tortugas Area Map	264 KB
Food Fish Species Code List (numeric order)	14 KB
Food Fish Species Code List (alphabetical order)	14 KB
Food Fish Species Code List (grouped by species category)	14 KB
Marine Life Species Code List (numeric order)	19 KB
Marine Life Species Code List (alphabetical order)	19 KB
New Retail Dealer Questionnaire	104 KB
New Wholesale Dealer Questionnaire	109 KB
Request for Release of Personal Commercial Landings Data (Wholesale Dealer)	70 KB
Request for Release of Personal Commercial Landings Data (Individual Fisher)	67 KB

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