Battle for Red Snapper to Begin

By Dusty Ricketts, The Destin Log, Fla.

Jan. 18–The Destin Charter Boat Association is preparing for a war over how many red snapper can be caught.

Planning begins next week, when members of the charter boat association meet at 6 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Destin Community Center to discuss the options they will support to improve the red snapper fishery.

A new stock assessment on the red snapper fishery was completed last year and found that the bycatch mortality rate for the fishery was higher than expected, Dr. Roy Crabtree, Southeast regional administrator in St. Petersburg for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in an interview.

The depletion of the red snapper fishery has been a concern at NOAA for several years, Crabtree said. This is the final year of a five-year plan to improve the fishery by closing red snapper to recreational fishing six months of the year and imposing a four-fish per person bag limit.

“Some progress has been made but there’s still a ways to go,” Crabtree said.

Rather than looking at just the recreational fishing industry, NOAA is examining recreational fishing, commercial fishing and bycatch mortality from the shrimping industry, Crabtree said.

While there is concern that tighter red snapper regulations could be placed on the charter boat captains, there is also relief that NOAA is investigating the shrimping and commercial fishing industries.

“It’s finally happening. They’re finally trying to hold the shrimpers accountable,” said Destin’s Mike Eller, captain of the Fish-N-Fool. “I think it’s about time.”

While the charter boat captains have had their red snapper season cut in half and bag limits reduced over the years, Eller said very little has been done to the shrimping industry. Bycatch reduction devices were created for the shrimping industry, but they were not effective, he said.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will hold a series of public hearings next week too collect comments and receive more information. The hearings are planned for:

–Jan. 23 at the Holiday Inn, 5465 U.S. 90 West in Mobile.

–Jan. 25 at the Hilton Garden Inn, 23092 Perdido Beach Blvd. in Orange Beach, Ala.

–Jan. 26 at the National Marine Fisheries Service, 3500 Delwood Beach Road, Panama City.

If new recreational limits are imposed on the red grouper fishery, Crabtree said they would likely go into effect in 2007. The plan calls for overfishing of red snapper to stop by 2009 or 2010 and rebuild the stock by 2032, Crabtree said.

“It’s a long-life species. It’s going to take a while,” Crabtree said.

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