The following statement was released by Meredith Moore, director of the Fish Conservation Program, regarding NOAA Fisheries’ proposed rule to bring management of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico into compliance with federal law:

“NOAA Fisheries is finally taking long-overdue action to address the serious design flaws in the Gulf state management system for the private recreational red snapper fishery. Today’s proposed rule, once implemented, will mean that state management of red snapper complies with the law and will help return fairness among sectors and sustainability to the fishery.  

“For five years, state management has allowed anglers to chronically exceed sustainable fishing limits for red snapper, jeopardizing the health of this fishery that is still rebuilding from historic overfishing. Since day one of the state management system going into place, managers have known they needed to establish a process to bring disparate state and federal data systems together so they could understand how many fish were being caught across the whole Gulf of Mexico. Because each state’s survey is tailored to the needs of each state and its anglers, the estimates they produce are not directly comparable to one another or established sustainable quotas, so the different sources of data must be calibrated. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, the Gulf States, and NOAA Fisheries had every opportunity to appropriately address this data calibration issue and have repeatedly failed to do so. 

“There are troubling signs that the red snapper population is starting to decline, which may negatively affect private recreational, commercial, and for-hire fishing opportunities in the future. Ocean Conservancy is relieved that NOAA Fisheries is taking this critical step to restore science-based, sustainable, and accountable management to this fishery.”   

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Meredith Moore is available for interviews upon request.

NOTES TO EDITOR:

• Lack of calibration among catch monitoring systems across the five states are allowing the private recreational fishing sector to exceed sustainable red snapper catch limits, causing overfishing and risking decades of rebuilding progress. At a meeting on April 15, 2021, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council voted to delay addressing this issue until 2023. 
• The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in the Federal Register by NOAA Fisheries today would implement this Council action, which implements the necessary calibrations. These are needed in order to bring the management system into compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
• Amendment 50A-F, known as “state management” and finalized in 2020, provided greater authority to Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, allowing those states to manage recreational fishing of red snapper in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico adjacent to their state waters. 
• Because each state’s survey is tailored to the characteristics of each state and its anglers, the surveys and the estimates they produce are not directly comparable. Using what scientists know about the differences among survey collection methods, calibrations have been created by NOAA Fisheries (with input from the states) to make the landings estimates among the surveys comparable to a standard unit of reporting, or a “common currency”. These calibrations have been approved for use in management by the scientific advisors to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, the Science and Statistical Committee.

• There are troubling signs that the catch overages from the private recreational sector are degrading the health of the red snapper population in the Gulf. Both recent longline survey data and for-hire catch rates suggest declining catch rates. In addition, credible accounts from fishermen in the region indicate that the level of private recreational overages occurring in the Gulf are starting to reverse progress made toward rebuilding the stock. 
• The Gulf of Mexico red snapper is a commercially and recreationally important fish stock to the region. The stock was put into a rebuilding plan after overfishing drove it to just 3% of its historic levels. Red snapper is more than halfway through its 27-year rebuilding plan, and it is critical for Gulf fishermen and communities to meet the deadline of having a healthy stock by 2032.
• Calibration of state recreational data is the critical first step to addressing the illegal mismanagement of red snapper over the past 6 years. 

About Ocean Conservancy

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