Allocating Red Snapper

March is the transition month on the Gulf Coast, between our normally mild winter and the joy of another spring. January and February saw warmer than normal days, with near record highs in February pushing into the upper 60’s in daytime hours, with mid-50’s at night. February also saw more rainfall than we had been getting in the past year, and if not a drought breaker on the Texas coast, it will be very close. This is often the time of year when boat owners begin moving their vessels into the yards to make ready for another season on the water, and if sunshine returns to help paint dry, conditions should be much better than those years when a brisk and cool wind howled, blowing dirt and sand onto surfaces not yet cured and into grease being packed around bearings. Because fuel prices are still running abnormally high, yard space may be plentiful, as some owners may not be so eager to ready their craft for the first real trip to the fuel dock.

Many boats on the Gulf Coast are considered fishing boats first, cruising craft second and the news is not so good for anglers eager to wet a line. Red snapper have traditionally been the go-to species for both recreational and for-hire fishermen in Gulf waters, but at the last Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council meeting in early February, the position was taken that even if red snapper stocks are truly judged to be fully “rebuilt” in the year 2032, as NOAA Fisheries scientists now predict, the catch limits will likely be held to 12-15 million pounds, with only 7 million pounds going to the recreational sector. This would result in the “open” season for red snapper in the Gulf being roughly 60 days for recreational fishermen. Of course, this is a little better than the 40-day season previously expected for 2012, but still far less than what fishermen were hoping for. One of the half dozen or so items on the NOAA Fisheries Regional Saltwater Recreational Fishing Action Agenda for 2012 is that there is a demand from both recreational and commercial fishermen for an increase in snapper catch limits and longer seasons. Even the data collected by NOAA Fisheries—which most fishermen consider incomplete and suspect—shows snapper populations on a strong rebound. But in a classic “damned if you do …” scenario, that agency says that the snapper caught last season by recreational anglers were larger in average than in past years, resulting in the quota being exceeded by several million pounds. The 2012 season will be the shortest since seasonal limits were placed upon red snapper, as a “payback” for the previous years’ perceived overage.

Most fishermen and many biologists—even Dr. Bob Shipp of the Gulf Council—feel something is wrong when the fishery is judged to be rebounding, yet the season keeps getting shorter. Conversely, Dr. Roy Crabtree, NOAA Fisheries point man on the Gulf Council, feels recreational fishermen are already getting too many fishing days, and is adamantly opposed to adding to the recreational quota or the total allowable quota between recreational and commercial catches.