Forecasting a Future for South Atlantic Red Snapper

Fishermen and the latest fishery stock assessment agree: There are a lot of red snapper in the South Atlantic. Yet, promising numbers alone do not tell the whole story of red snapper off the U.S. East Coast.

South Atlantic red snapper is a favorite among offshore anglers, but it’s been in a rebuilding plan for almost two decades. The first stock assessment in 2008 determined the red snapper stock was depleted due to overfishing. As a result, managers have had to keep catch limits low and fishing seasons short, and in some years, fishing was prohibited altogether.

But now, there are many small and very young red snapper that have a chance to rebuild this stock so that it better supports coastal communities. These little fish are almost entirely under 10 years old, a concern for a fish that can live up to 50 years. While these younger fish are growing in numbers, the stock is still vulnerable without a healthy population of older fish. That’s because, unlike with humans, older, larger fish are more reproductively successful. If you want a lot of fish to support a fishery, you need a good number of older fish.

The South Atlantic red snapper stock has seen booms of young fish in the past, but they never made it to their later years—why? One big reason is the high number of these fish are caught and discarded at sea by the recreational fishing sector. The number of red snapper caught and released by recreational fishermen in the South Atlantic is estimated to be between approximately 1 million to 4 million fish annually, and almost a quarter of these fish die after release. This number is more than 10 times greater than the sustainable limit of fish that can be caught and kept in the fishery.

There is hope that these young red snapper, if allowed to age, could help successfully rebuild the fishery. That’s the best path towards a future where a healthy stock can support more fishing.

New approaches and new challenges on the horizon

There are two efforts on the horizon for South Atlantic red snapper that aim to incorporate new science and management approaches with the goal of improving fishing opportunities for the South Atlantic. Both present some real opportunities to improve our management of this stock, but they come with significant risks if not implemented well.

State management of South Atlantic red snapper

The first effort is that policy makers are considering shifting the responsibility of sustainably managing recreational catch of red snapper to a state management system. This would move management away from the U.S.’s current unified federal system administered by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council over to individual state management by Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

State management has been tested on recreational fishing for Gulf red snapper for nearly a decade, and managers are still developing methods to combine their data and management systems to ensure catch is sustainable. Tracking red snapper landings in the Gulf against catch limits remains nearly impossible, and there are signs the stock there is in decline. Changing to a new state management system in the South Atlantic would mean those states would have to support extensive and costly management and data collection systems that manage the fishery sustainably and address the issue of high recreational discards.

South Atlantic Red Snapper Research Program

The second effort is a new research program, the South Atlantic Red Snapper Research Program, that seeks to answer this question: “How many red snapper are there?” This study combines several scientific survey approaches, including novel methods using fish genetics, to estimate the abundance of red snapper in the region. The preliminary report (released last week) provides two estimates of population size and cautions that the results should not be misinterpreted prior to peer review and integration with other available data sets and assessments.

The science that underlies fishery management involves many interconnected variables, which means that changing one of those factors requires scientists to assess the changes to the whole system. Our understanding from a population count is connected to our estimates of how well we think the fish are reproducing and how many are dying. It will be important for managers to not overinterpret the results and change catch levels before the study has been peer-reviewed, revised and added into the stock assessment process.

The South Atlantic red snapper fishery–abundant in potential, with the right protections

Scientists, fishermen and managers have a chance to protect a generation of young fish that are just entering into their productive years. Although there are many complexities in charting a way forward for red snapper, a simple choice will decide their future.

If allowed to mature, these fish could usher in a golden era of red snapper fishing in the South Atlantic. But raising catch limits too high, or losing our ability to monitor catch, will wipe out these young fish and cause our best chance in years for a huge, healthy fishery to slip away for today’s fishermen and for future generations.

Ocean Conservancy is working collaboratively with many partners to keep the red snapper stock sustainable. Our policy experts and scientists attend fishery management council meetings, share comment letters, track red snapper landings and monitor rebuilding progress. We’re not working only for red snapper—we’re also working for a healthy ocean and thriving planet, forever and for everyone. Please make a gift to Ocean Conservancy today and make a difference for the future of our ocean.