Shrimping — Sebastian, Florida

Shrimping in the Indian River Lagoon at Sebastian is done mostly at night with dip nets, cast nets, push nets and frame nets, under an FWC limit of 5 gallons heads on per harvester or per vessel.

The FWC recreational shrimping regulations treat the Indian River Lagoon at Sebastian as part of the Southeast region, which is open year-round; the seasonal closures FWC lists apply to the Northeast Region counties from Nassau to Clay and to parts of Franklin County, far from Indian River County. Outside the Big Bend, each harvester may take 5 gallons of shrimp, heads on, and a vessel may also hold 5 gallons, with no more than 5 gallons aboard at any time however many people are on the boat.

A recreational saltwater fishing license is required for shrimping unless the person is exempt, FWC states. The agency's license page adds a shoreline-only license, valid for fishing from shore or a structure attached to shore, such as the city piers along Indian River Drive, but not valid from a vessel. Last verified: October 10, 2026, on FWC's shrimping and license pages.

Shrimping near Sebastian is mostly a night activity because pink shrimp, the main Florida species, burrow in the sediment by day and come out to feed after dark.

The FWC shrimp FAQ says the pink shrimp is the most abundant species harvested in Florida and lives in clear waters, especially from west-central to southeast Florida, a range that takes in the Indian River Lagoon off Sebastian. It describes the pink shrimp and the brown shrimp as nocturnal, burrowing in the sediment during the day and feeding at night, which is why a lot of shrimping is done after dark. Brown shrimp and white shrimp, the other two food species, are caught mostly in northeast and northwest Florida.

The same FWC page answers a common question at Sebastian bait counters and docks: bait shrimp and food shrimp are usually both pink shrimp. Bait shrimp are juveniles harvested from bays and estuaries such as the lagoon, while food shrimp are larger adults taken after the shrimp move out of the bays into nearshore and offshore waters. FWC adds that shrimp swim backward, by snapping the abdomen toward the body.

FWC allows dip or landing nets, cast nets, push nets, small seines, frame nets and up to four shrimp traps for recreational shrimping in Sebastian waters, with size limits on each.

From a single boat on the Indian River Lagoon, no more than two nets may be fished at once. A landing or dip net may have an opening of no more than 96 inches around, and a cast net may have a stretched length of no more than 14 feet. A push net is a mesh bag on a rigid frame pushed or dragged by a wading person, the gear suited to the shallow grass flats off the Sebastian shoreline. A beach or haul seine is limited to 500 square feet with mesh no larger than 2 inches and may not be monofilament.

Frame nets carry a rule that matters at Sebastian Inlet. FWC defines them as buoyed nets kept open by a rigid frame, with an opening no larger than 16 feet around, and says they must be deployed from a vessel or from a structure other than an operational bridge or causeway, or a catwalk attached to one. The district history of the Sebastian Inlet Bridge, completed in 1964, notes that catwalks are built below the bridge, so those catwalks are off limits for frame nets. Frame nets may not be monofilament and may not be towed as a trawl.

Traps are the fourth option. A harvester may use up to four shrimp traps, each no larger than 36 inches long, 24 inches wide and 12 inches high, without wings that funnel shrimp in, and FWC says traps attached to public property, such as a city dock in Sebastian, must be tended.

FWC bars shrimp baiting poles within 50 yards of any dock, pier, public boat landing or ramp, seawall, jetty or bridge, which rules out the waters right off Sebastian's riverfront piers and ramps.

The pole rules apply to cast netters who bait shrimp on the Indian River Lagoon. FWC allows no more than five nonmetal poles, each no more than one inch thick, set at least 10 yards apart, with the first and last no more than 50 yards apart. Poles may be set, fished and retrieved only in daylight hours, from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset, must be marked with white reflective tape, and must be tended with the harvester within 100 yards.

The Sebastian waterfront is lined with structures that trigger the 50 yard buffer. The city lists twin piers at Riverview Park, at 600 U.S. Highway 1 on the corner of C.R. 512 and Sebastian Boulevard; a dual ramp with a fishing pier at the Yacht Club, 820 Indian River Drive; and a ramp and fishing pier at Main Street Park, 1300 Indian River Drive. The buffer applies to the pole baiting method only; the city pages list the piers for fishing and do not set separate shrimping rules, so the statewide FWC limits govern dip netting from them.

Shrimp around Sebastian grow up in the seagrass of the Indian River Lagoon, including the shoals just inside Sebastian Inlet west of the bridge.

In its August 17, 2026, report on channel markers, the Sebastian Inlet District wrote that seagrass beds on the shoals west of the bridge harbor shrimp, blue crabs and juvenile fish, and that the markers help keep boats off those shallows. A district article on the seagrass west of Sebastian Inlet says seagrasses serve as a nursery for juvenile fish, shrimp and other marine life, and that the Indian River Lagoon holds a greater diversity of seagrass than any other U.S. estuary.

Shrimp also feed the fish that make the inlet famous. The fifth part of the district's fish series quotes biologist Dr. Grant Gilmore placing shrimp in the group of small migrators with pinfish, sardines, anchovies, blue crabs and mullet, a group that seldom enters the fishery directly but supports it by feeding the top predators of Sebastian Inlet.

FWC asks shrimpers in the Indian River Lagoon to report abnormal shrimp to its Fish Kill Hotline, 800-636-0511, a request rooted in lagoon reports from 2005 and 2010.

The FWC account of the abnormal shrimp reports begins in February 2005, when people in the Titusville and Melbourne area noticed discolored pink shrimp from the northern Indian River Lagoon. Specimens sent in by shrimpers and others let FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute biologists identify a microscopic parasite as the cause. FWC says reports from shrimpers in the fall of 2010 then alerted the agency to a nonnative species, the tiger prawn, in the lagoon area.

The agency cites both cases as examples of how the public can assist marine research. For shrimpers working the lagoon off Sebastian, the practical instruction on the FWC page is the hotline number and the request to report all findings of abnormal shrimp.