STATEMENT: Longer Red Snapper Seasons Could Allow Overfishing 48% Above the Sustainable Limit

WASHINGTON – Yesterday, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced 14-day recreational fishing seasons for red snapper in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, alongside a 3-day federal season that would include North Carolina. This will likely cause illegal overfishing, a key reason why expanded seasons were blocked by a federal judge in May. The seasons announced by the NMFS modify sustainable limits without going through the proper procedures and rely on assumptions that anglers will be much slower to catch fish in October than in other months when seasons were open. They also fail to account for fish that have been caught during Florida’s state season, which has been plagued by reports of fish being caught illegally in federal waters with no enforcement. 

Ocean Conservancy’s review of the calculations in the announcement suggest that the amount of catch estimated for the seasons – 83,720 fish for Florida, 4,859 fish for Georgia, 8,695 fish for South Carolina and a 15,514 fish buffer to account for North Carolina – represent a 48% overage of the overfishing limit established in the last stock assessment when all factors, such as discards, are considered. 

Ocean Conservancy’s Senior Director of Fish Conservation Meredith Moore released the following statement:

“I have no confidence that these fishing seasons are sustainable or legal. These seasons assume a clean slate for fishing this year, completely ignoring the number of fish that have already been caught during Florida’s state season. There’s no way to know if these seasons are sustainable without counting how many fish have been caught so far. Our best estimate suggests that these seasons alone could allow overfishing 48% above the science-based limit. If we don’t rely on sound math and science, overfishing will crash this stock, and coastal communities will suffer.”

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