Head and Fins attached rule?

[gogators27]

Head and Fins attached rule:

{All fish except for bait and oceanic migratory species taken from federal waters must have head and fins intact through landing. Up to 1.5 pounds of finfish per person is exempt from the head and fins intact rule for personal consumption, provided the vessel is equipped to cook such finfish.}

http://www.gulfcouncil.org/Old/downloads/recbrochure.pdf

Which fish are "oceanic migratory species" and does this mean that you can fillet them out on the boat?

Also, the exception for 1.5 pound per person is on the non-oceanic migrator species I assume. For personal consumption,(what else would you do with fish). Does this mean that you can fillet up to 1.5 pounds per person out on the water of non-oceanic migratory species?

[ObieWan2bWet]

Oceanic Migratory species are Pelagics like Swordfish, Marlin, Tuna. I believe Commercial guys head gill and gut to ice because they are so far out for long periods of time and otherwise would spoil. A good friend of mine is FWC and he says you can filet, cook and eat all you want offshore, which means if you cut up a 20# fish you should have about 5-6 people or so aboard to be legal (cooked, sushi, whatever), you certainly don't want to cut a 150# Swordfish with 4 people aboard, thats why the rule is what it is, and you should'nt bring any fish filets back with you, (so don't cut a 150lbder with 4 people) and you probably can't eat more than a couple pounds of fish per pers per day anyway (which is what the 1.5 lbs was intended for) Yes you can legally filet and eat 1.5 lbs per pers per day of any legal fish offshore.