Saving Snapper?

By Ben Christensen, The Brownsville Herald, Texas

Jun. 2–National Marine Fisheries Service has added a few more rules to its already restrictive set of regulations adopted in 2007 for recreational and commercial Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishing for the 2008 fishing season in U.S. federal waters, which will all be implemented when the federal season opens today.

In Texas, state waters extend out to nine nautical miles offshore, and snapper rules in the state’s jurisdiction remain less restrictive after Texas Parks & Wildlife decided in January not to further restrict its own snapper rules after holding several public hearings on the matter.

In this year’s Federal Register, where the rules are reported with finality, NMFS cried alarm that Texas has not set its rules to mirror federal snapper rules. During 2007, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department kept the state snapper season open all year and allowed a foursnapper daily limit in spite of the NMFS regulations and the bureaucracy’s pointed assertion that the tighter federal rules were set “under the assumption all five Gulf states would adopt compatible resolutions.”

In the Federal Register article, NMFS said it had requested both in 2007 and 2008 that Texas and Florida, in particular, come into line with its regulations, and Florida made some concessions for the season and bag limit while Texas has refused.

As a result of Texas’ refusal to limit recreational snapper fishing still further, NMFS is projecting a total Gulf of Mexico recreational catch nearly 14 percent over its 2008 goal for 2.45 million pounds of snapper taken recreationally and shortened the federal season from its earlier projection of September 30 to the current closure August 5.

The federal season is now set to close Aug. 5 for recreational anglers, and today new regulations enforcing use of only nonstainless steel circle hooks and requiring boats to carry de-hooking devices and venting tools for puncturing inflated swim bladders on undersized fish come into play.

NMFS’ goal, according to press releases to date, is to “ensure a reasonable probability of ending red snapper overfishing by 2010 and rebuild the stock by 2032.”

The newer restrictions that first took effect in 2007, which included a two-fish per-day bag limit, shortened recreational season (from the former season that lasted from April 21 to October 31) and disallowed captain and crew of for-hire recreational charter boats from retaining any snapper, have been continued under the guise of being temporary “interim rules,” according to NMFS.

Those rules have left a good many charter captains skeptical of the data that NMFS relies on to determine that snapper are being over-fished, and angry allegations that the bureaucracy is forcing recreational fishing guides out of the once-lucrative snapper business.

Captain Todd Lohry, who runs Todd’s Sportfishing Service from his 38-foot sport fishing boat, REEL Madness, said NMFS needs to approach snapper overfishing from a regional perspective rather than enforcing oppressive rules over the entire Gulf of Mexico. He also said NMFS simply does not have the data they need to make such decisions, and do not seem interested in obtaining it. Lohry said the snapper spots he fishes with clients are all in federal waters, so the rules cut into a lucrative area of his charter business.

“There’s the population factor to take into consideration,” he said. “There’s a 130-mile stretch between Corpus Christi and Port Aransas that doesn’t have any boats running, and in Florida, snapper is only one of a whole bunch of other species.”

“(NMFS has) had these public hearings pop up here and there but people stopped going to them because it became apparent after a while that they’re going to do what they’re going to do, and they don’t care what anybody has to say about it,” Lohry said.

Information gathering by NMFS has been inadequate, Lohry said, and anglers are notorious for not telling the truth about fish they caught and where. However, he sees a simple solution.

“All they would have to do to really get a good idea of how much snapper are being taken is issue permits for one season like they issue oversized redfish tags. Two tags for a two-snapper daily bag, and fishermen would have to turn those two in to get two more. If they did that for a season, they’d be flooded with information about the recreational catch. But they won’t do that.”

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