Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is a Florida governmental organization created in 1999 with the purpose of regulating the environment and enforcing environmental legislation in the state of Florida. It combines the former offices of the Marine Fisheries Commission, Divisions of Marine Resources and Law Enforcement of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and all of the employees and Commissioners of the former Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, and is regulated by seven governor-appointed commissioners.

Law enforcement boat of the FWC.

1 History
2 Departments
3 Commissioners
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, better known by its shortened acronym of FWC, was founded on July 1, 1999 as a result of a 1998 Florida Constitutional amendement approved in 1998. The creation of the FWC united several previously-separate organizations under a universal umbrella. The FWC is headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, and has over 1,800 full-time employees. The FWC operates five regional offices, a Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, and 73 field offices across the state of Florida.

[edit] Departments

In addition to serving as the environmental regulatory agency for the state of Florida, the FWC operates as a law enforcement agency in Florida, and FWC officers can perform many police actions in the course of their duties. Alongside the law-enforcement aspects of the agency, the FWC operates several associate departments.

Fish and Wildlife Research Institute

Division of Hunting and Game Management

Division of Habitat and Species Conservation

Division of Freshwater Fisheries Management

Division of Marine Fisheries Management

Division of Law Enforcement

Office of Information Technology

Office of Recreation Services

There are also three overarching divisions created for administrative purposes, which work primarily within the structure of the FWC itself. These are:

Community Relations
Office of Policy and Stakeholder Coordination

[edit] Commissioners

Commissioners of the FWC are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the legislature for five-year terms. Typically, commissioners come from different geographical areas of the state in order to ensure that the FWC adequately protects the entire state of Florida, but it is not unusual to have multiple commissioners from the same city or region.

Current commissioners:^[1]