Dusky Jawfish

Fun facts for your next surface interval

• A juvenile dorsal blotch may disappear in adults. [source]
• The lateral line covers only the front half of the body. [source]
• A slender cirrus projects from the front nostril. [source]

Florida and local context

Opistognathus whitehurstii is a species-level row in the Blue Heron Bridge (WPB), Phil Foster Park report.

A documented past record does not establish present abundance or guarantee an encounter.

Sources: REEF: named-site cumulative survey supplied with reservation

Harvest, protection and eating safety

Can it be hunted or harvested?

Opistognathidae: maximum 4 inches total length. Where lawful, land and maintain alive with adequate life support; five per species within 20 organisms daily, and ten within 40 in two-day possession. License requirements apply; recreational sale is prohibited.

Florida seasons and areas

No affirmative year-round season clearance is assigned. State marine-life requirements also apply in federal waters. Check the mapped site before any take. Blue Heron Bridge closes listed marine-life collection, not all county fishing. Biscayne prohibits ornamental collection without a superintendent permit and has a mapped March 1–May 31 fishing/possession closure effective in 2026, with a stowed continuous-transit exception. Pennekamp disallows tropical-fish collection and spearfishing. Key Largo Management Area prohibits tropical-fish take, marine-invertebrate take except specified lobster/stone-crab activities, and spearfishing. Sanctuary Preservation Areas prohibit fishing/collection except expressly stated exceptions. These are site rules, not whole-corridor bans.

Can it be speared?

Do not spear a live-only collection species. FWC allows specified nonlethal methods; no quinaldine. FWC restricts spearfishing near public swimming beaches, fishing piers/bridges, jetties and in state parks. The Long Key-north Monroe restriction concerns state waters; Key Largo Management Area has a separate prohibition. Federal location alone is not clearance.

Is it safe to eat?

Live-only collection is not recreational food harvest. No food-safety clearance, recipe or meal frequency is established. Consult current Florida Health guidance for the animal, capture site and consumer. A legal allowance does not establish that a catch is safe to eat. No dated species-matched local menu evidence was verified.

Opistognathidae: maximum 4 inches total length.

This review covers the Vero Beach–Key Largo Atlantic corridor: Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Florida Atlantic state waters and South Atlantic federal waters are distinct jurisdictions. Do not extend a state-water season tag to federal waters or transfer Atlantic rules to Gulf-side Keys waters. Park and sanctuary boundaries can override a species allowance.

Before you act: Confirm the species, date, exact management area, state or federal waters, gear, licenses and current local closures. A local occurrence record never grants permission to take an animal.

Official rules and health guidance

• FWC current recreational marine-life table
• FAC current marine-life definition landing page; full text not exposed
• FAC current closed-area rule landing page
• FWC current spearing methods and location restrictions
• NOAA-hosted historical explanatory spearing boundary brochure; not standalone current law
• NOAA current management-area tropical fish, invertebrate and spear restrictions
• NOAA current sanctuary preservation area restrictions
• Florida State Parks Pennekamp brochure; official indexed text
• NPS current Biscayne fishing and collection rules
• FWC current Biscayne mapped closure, effective March 2026
• Florida Health seafood toxin advice
• Florida Health consumption advice

Reviewed 2026-11-11. Rules and advisories can change; check the linked authorities before acting.

Identification and source cautions

• Historical cumulative citizen-science occurrence is not an independently reidentified voucher or a current encounter probability.
• Regional habitat, depth and range do not prove occurrence at every corridor site.
• Maximum length is source-specific, not a typical encounter size.
• Detailed local spawning and activity schedules were not verified.
• Reservation observed name Opistognathus whitehurstii is retained as an alias; accepted name remains Opistognathus whitehursti. The Smithsonian account reports 7.8 cm; larger secondary-source maxima were not adopted.

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