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| Angler Outfitters Outdoor Resources |
Articles: New Red Snapper Regulations |
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Current Fishing Articles »
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Press Release
August 19, 2006
After Hours of Public Testimony Gulf Council Delays by 4 Months New Red Snapper Regulations
In an extraordinary move the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council voted to postpone the rebuilding plan for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico for four months. The decision came after over sixty people testified and pleaded with the Council to let them get their lives back in order after they suffered the worst natural disaster in history, the unprecedented year of hurricanes.
The latest stock assessment results showed the stock had grown five fold in the last five years under current regulations. The spawning potential ratio five years ago was 0.4%, data through 2004 shows a ratio of almost 3%.
The four- month delay should not affect the recovery because of reduced effort in the shrimp trawl fishery that has occurred due to Hurricane Katrina, fuel prices and shrimp prices. The NMFS has estimated a reduction in effort somewhere between 50%-60%, which will drastically increase the number of red snapper that will survive and grow to maturity. Coupled with the highest recruitment ever seen in red snapper the storms that ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005 and high fuel prices the Council argued there would be a substantial decrease in recreational effort
The National Marine Fisheries Service has failed miserably over the last sixteen years in reducing the dead red snapper associated with the shrimp trawl fishery. Approximately 80% of age 0 and 1 red snapper are killed every year as bycatch in the shrimp fishery. Coupled with natural mortality, only 17% of the juveniles grow to a harvestable level. The NMFS has known this since 1980 and although the Gulf Council has pleaded with them and adopted numerous rebuilding plans over the last decade and a half that included goals to reduce their mortality of dead juvenile red snapper from 40%-50%, the only accomplishment attributed to NMFS has been a 12% reduction since 1998.
The NMFS has spent millions of dollars studying bycatch and have observed thousands of trawls to establish the percentage of dead discards, but after all this time and money they continue to report they do not have the data to reduce these dead discards. They know the area in the Gulf (10-30 fathoms) where the majority of red snapper and other fish are killed and discarded overboard as unintended catch. They know the ratio of bycatch to shrimp and still argue they cannot implement a bycatch quota system that would allow the red snapper stock to rebuild.
Instead of targeting the single most important element to red snapper recovery the NMFS has continually tightened regulations on the directed fishery. They tried it one more time at the Gulf Council meeting this week. The outcries of the recreational anglers resounded through the walls on Wednesday when they testified they had given all they had to rebuild this fishery. They pleaded that you can't rebuild a fishery if you are only dealing with 17% of the solution. It's like trying to kill an elephant with a BB gun.
Dr. Crabtree, Southeast Regional Administrator for NMFS threatened the Council with his own emergency action to set regulations if they postponed action by four months. The Magnuson/Stevens Act gives the Secretary of Commerce that authority however one has to wander if Congress intended Regional Administrators to ignore actions by a regional council when they disagree with him. The Gulf Council includes 5 state fishery directors and 11 appointed members with expertise in fisheries off of their respective states. It appears that these folks deal in reality, while the NMFS deals with models that have failed for years to predict the status of our stocks. One recent example is vermilion snapper. A few years ago the model stated that this fishery was overfished and overfishing was occurring, however the latest model states that this fishery was never overfished and overfishing had never been occurring. Since the 1990's scientist and environmentalist have pointed to models that projected the red snapper stock crashing, however it has done the opposite. The fishery has recovered down the coast of Florida where anglers are now catching their bag limits when a decade ago they never encountered a red snapper.
Recreational fishermen across the Gulf Coast are encouraging their fellow anglers to wake up and join them in their demand for NMFS to look at reality and admit these models are generating data that is not credible. The National Research Council recently reviewed the recreational data system (MRFSS) and concluded it was fatally flawed. When questioned by council members the NMFS states it is the best available science and to date no plan has been produced to improve this science. One council member commented "It's not the best available science it is the only available science and NMFS has failed to improve the system so that it would produce credible science." The NMFS has admitted this system was never designed to manage the recreational sector under a quota system. The system was designed to estimate trends. In 1996 Congress passed the Sustainable Fisheries Act and NMFS was instructed to manage the recreational sector under a quota system for red snapper. After decades of recreational anglers pleading for better data and several reviews concluding the data is inadequate the NMFS has done nothing to correct the problem nor have they attempted to inform congress they were tasked with a job they cannot perform.
These recreational data sets are used in these models when determining the status of our stocks. A new charter boat survey implemented in 2000 concluded that effort in the recreational red snapper fishery was being over estimated by 30%-35%. Apparently this system over estimates offshore effort and underestimates inshore effort.
The law that governs fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico and across the United States is currently being reauthorized. Perhaps the sleeping giant of recreational anglers will wake up and let Congress know that the Southeast Regional Director of NMFS is out of control and rather than listening to his regional council he ignores their expertise advice when they do not agree with him.
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