UPDATE: On Dec. 12, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials approved a draft proposal that would prohibit the collection and possession of marine life fishery species within the park and surrounding waters. These prohibitions would not apply to other fishing activities, such as hook-and-line fishing and directly targets species collected for the aquarium trade.

This proposal affects Blue Heron Bridge/Phil Foster County Park in Palm Beach County and will need final approval at the February Commission meeting before the proposed changes go into affect. The FWC will also "evaluate all future Special Activities Licenses to determine if collection from the Blue Heron Bridge dive site is necessary or if another location can be used." These licenses are often issues for scientific research or public exhibition purposes.

The scuba diving community in South Florida is embroiled in a fight to protect the native marine life of Blue Heron Bridge. The issue took center stage this week after Moody Gardens — a Galveston, Texas-based tourist attraction and aquarium — removed several species from the popular dive site.

READ MORE ABOUT DIVING BLUE HERON BRIDGE

The nature of the extraction — and amount of species removed — is the center of a huge controversy, with many divers claiming that the aquarium stripped the site of almost all of its marine life. Moody Gardens remains steadfast in its claim that it followed all of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission guidelines, and the removal was allowed through a permit.

“Claims that Moody Gardens has collected thousands of fish from the Blue Heron Bridge dive site in Florida are misinformed and untrue,” said Moody Gardens CEO John Zendt in a statement.

Zendt claims that a total of 50 fish and 12 invertebrates were removed over a seven-day period, and that Moody Gardens followed all of the guidelines of their permit.

However, local divers claim to have seen many more fish removed. Underwater photographer Jim Abernethy has been outspoken on his Facebook page, claiming that Moody Gardens did not follow the FWC guidelines.

Abernethy started a petition on Change.org to end the removal of marine life from Phil Foster Park (the Blue Heron Bridge dive site). At the time of press, more than 4,800 people signed the petition.

Moody Gardens received a permit in September to collect fish. But, the permit was amended Oct. 6 to prohibit taking animals from the Blue Heron Bridge area, according to the Palm Beach Post.

But, by that point fish had already been removed from the site.

“Technically it was not illegal based on their permit but it was unethical,” Bill Parks, a member of the Florida Marine Life Association, told the Post. “The divers here are livid.”

Divers have been outspoken on social media, calling for a boycott of the aquarium.

Check back for more updates as they become available.