Florida state park hunting???

[rsc]

Is it legal to hunt the gulf coast surf in Florida State Parks? Heading that way in November.
Thanks in advance... Gayle

 

[kc10bull]

Information for Saint Petersburg, Clearwater, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs areas. Fort Desoto you need to get a permission permit to detect there and have it available to hunt the beaches and water, always check with the rangers to see if there are any specific areas that are restricted. Honeymoon Island, you can detect on the beaches and water. Do not collect sea life like live sand dollars, you will get into trouble for that. Howard Park last time I was there a yea ago no restrictions on beach or water.

 

[JackInFlorida]

fort desoto, they let you metal detect even in the water.

Fort DeSoto is a County Park.

Tom, the laws are here in Florida because of Mell Fisher and gang, not because of asking. Your theory is good though. The state of Florida wants it's piece of the pie. They also employ many archeologists due to this fact. Since the aforementioned employees want the first right to steal anything on State land, we have this issue.

BTW, for those of you who don't know, it is not only state parks. It is illegal to dig or remove items from any state owned property. Again, more than likely due to archies and folks that don't fill their holes, causing complaints, than any other reason.

Allowing detecting at beaches in State Parks is "at the discretion of the park manager." This does mean that it could be OK, then suddenly not OK.

Jack

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Jack, thanx for your reply. Very interesting. You say the self-fulfilling psychology of this "asking permission" phenomenom was not what's at stake for FL. ok. Rather, it was the Mel Fisher front-page motherload, that brought the enforcement in the case of FL, to casual beach hunters. Ok, I'll buy that, for the case of FL, as it exists today.

But, as you know, Mel found his Atocha wreck silver and gold, in 1985 right? How much you wanna make a bet, that the very laws that the state relied on, to make their fuss, already existed before 1985?? Of course they did! (hence their ammunition to try to take it away from him) Now sure, maybe it was Mel (and not us fumble-fingers beach hunters) that brought this to enforcement. But nonetheless, the laws were there beforehand, I'll bet you. And thus the danger is there, that whereas perhaps before Mel, casual beach goers were just ignored, yet the danger is/was there, that if someone took it upon themselves to waltz in and ask, the laws were there. Ie.: you still could have gotten a "no", when perhaps no one really cared, or would have thought to morph such things (until you asked).

So while you are probably correct, that FL had some major finds to let ripple down us innocent beach goers, yet the potential was, and is there, not only for FL, but for everywhere else, for what I'm saying to occur.

 

[Sundancer]

We who dive in the local N Florida rivers for fossils are in a quandry as to exactly what the laws actually are. Like the State Parks, there is confusion. Here we have the SRWMD ( Suwannee River Water Management District ) who have purchased property along the rivers. The river bottoms themselves are State owned. The quandry is: What is the actual demarc.. the center of the river or perhaps the normal waterline??!!?? I have a friend who works for SRWMD and even they don't really know.. soooo.. we have FWC guys who think it's okay to hunt the river with SRWMD land onshore and others who will hassle you.. It's a mess.

~Mike

 

[TheTreasureAddict]

LOL,

What a post, hunted everywhere in FL. And used to hunt stateparks before they were parks. But besides that, its all about the ranger, sometimes they are kewl with it some are not. I know the rules, but that doesnt mean it doesnt hurt to ask. Ive had rangers give me tips about lost items and ask me to come back and Ive had some tell me absolutely not. Its all about the rangers. Now the rule is nothing over 50 years of age can be removed from stateland, or anything that looks like its been made by man. I do my part collect fossils coordinate with the University of Florida and carry a nice little fossil permit for the rangers on the rivers. You just need to be smart about it. Im not saying to do anything illegal. You just need to use your common sense. FORT DESOTO is sooooooo sweeeeeettttttttt! Love it there! Most county parks dont mind, I find none of them like it after dark. But overall I usually find a nice way to make everyone happy about hunting

CB

 

[JoelB]

I will be at Amelia Island Plantation this November? Can someone fill me in? I believe this is privately owned but if it is a island---well you get the picture. Thank You

 

[seadoodiver]

I live on the south west coast of florida. Cayo Costa and Lovers Key are state parks here. They will NOT let you hunt there. They were polite and told me to put my MD back in the car because I was not allowed. No one was rude or anything. They just said no you cant.
Jeff
Cape Coral Fl

 

[Les West Central Fl]

Fort Desoto is not a state park but rather a county park. You must get a permit at the ranger station first. The reason for it is so you are informed that you can only hunt the beach areas. These are the only areas that were completely cleared of bombs. The park was a bombing range during WWll. No DIGGING is allowed other than the beach area. They inforce the rules.
Egmont Key is off limits to metal detecting even in the water.

 

[W6PEA]

A year or so ago, my wife and I went to a State Beach, here in San Diego County. I asked the Park Ranger if it was alright if I went out and used my metal detector, on the beach. He said as far as he was concerned I could use my detector to my hearts content.
But if his supervisor came around and saw me using it he could confiscate it and issue me a ticket. So I don't use my detector on any State of California, State Beach or State Park. Now any City or County Beach's or Parks is a different story.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

W6pea, state beaches, all up and down CA, are routinely detected, and no one's ever had a confiscation or a ticket. If you're in San Diego, you no doubt see others plying the beach with detectors, right? Detecting state-of-CA owned beaches has simply gone on here, since the earliest days of detecting. So it's just never been questioned I guess. Even right in front of rangers of all different ranks, no one cares.

The supposed rule, that his supposed superiors, could morph to apply to you (cultural heritage type stuff) have never been applied. It's probably better to keep it that way, and not ask, lest it occur to someone "gee, I guess I better tell you no".

There was one close call incident at a state beach in my area though: a state archaeologist just *HAPPENED* to arrive at a particular beach, to do some sort of lecture talk at a little beach museum they have there. It was just a fluke that he happened to glance out to the water's edge, as he was getting out of his car to go into the building, and saw a friend of mine hunting. The archie came down and gave him the riot act. The friend of mine posted about his encounter on a particular CA forum, and of course, we all thought the archie was nuts, because it's just a simple fact, that the beaches are routinely detected all the time. So a few people thought maybe "we should straighten this out", and "prove this guy wrong" and other such solidarity fight-back type reactions. But a problem developed: the more and more you look into the matter (in the dusty minutia boiler plate junk in the codes), the more and more it seemed like, if someone really wanted to, there was, in fact, things that could be applied (ie.: cultural heritage, "collecting" verbage, etc....) So, the long and short of it was, we wrote that off as a fluke, and leave good enough alone. That archie probably went back to his land-locked sacramento office anyhow.

So you can see from this example: sometimes it's best to find out from the local long time md'rs to find what the reality is.

 

[finderzzs]

Here's the simplest answer. I wrote the state last year, they stated while it is "supposedly" illegal to hunt the state parks, it is up to the discretion of the ranger at each park. I said supposedly, because how can one ranger give you permission and another not. So visit the ranger stations and be courteous and see what they say. Good luck

 

[Tom_in_CA]

finderzz, would you apply your advice to CA, if, for example, you were going to visit here? Or are you only advising that for FL? Because if you mean that generally, as an answer for anyone's locales, you can see, from what I wrote, that this would be highly un-advisable here. And I suspect, it's going to be un-advisable elsewhere too lest you get the "no one cares till you ask" type self-fulfilling psychology.

 

[bobbkkat]

wiggins pass state park they will shoot you on site

I have hunted wiggins pass many times, and have had the rangers walk right past me and at even ask me how i did. sites that are considered "historical" or "archaeological" you can't detect.

 

[Les West Central Fl]

fort desoto, they let you metal detect even in the water. wiggins pass state park they will shoot you on site.bill baggs they let you hunt also in and out of the water.as far as i know fort desoto is the only one on the west coast that you are allowed to hunt. honeymoon island state park they used to let you im not sure if they do any more,they might still let you.also lovers key state park they used to let you no i dont think they will any more.

Fort Desoto is a County Park, You may only hunt the beach areas including the water. You must register at the Rangers Office and it is explained that no land hunting is allowed. Reason being it used to be a bombing range.