Federal red snapper catch limits cut in half, but Alabama officials optimistic

By Allison Marlow
Managing Editor
allisonm@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 3/29/23

Despite new, lower, federal catch limits, Alabama anglers should still have a successful season as state officials advocate for higher numbers, officials said.“At the end of the day, …

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Federal red snapper catch limits cut in half, but Alabama officials optimistic

Posted

Despite new, lower, federal catch limits, Alabama anglers should still have a successful season as state officials advocate for higher numbers, officials said.

“At the end of the day, we’re still going to have a very reasonable fishing season. It’s just potentially not going to be quite as long as what we’ve had for the last several years,” said Scott Bannon, the Director of Alabama Marine Resources (MRD) of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Alabama state waters and federal waters will open to private and state-licensed charter vessel anglers for red snapper harvest on Friday, May 26. The season will consist of four-day weekends, Friday through Monday, beginning Friday, May 26, and continue until the private angler quota is projected to be met.

In January, the National Marine Fisheries Service implemented a calibration measure for red snapper resulting in adjusted quotas for the Gulf states. That calibration was necessary to account for the different ways each state tallies the number of fish caught within its borders against the system used by NOAA.

That math hurts anglers in Alabama where the state has spent years installing artificial reefs in approximately 1,060 square miles of Alabama’s offshore waters, making it the largest artificial reef program in the United States. MRD argues that more artificial reefs mean more habitat for fish, which in turn means more fish.

This year’s limit leaves Alabama short of the 1.12 million pounds of red snapper previously targeted, nearly 51% less than last year’s limits, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. That in turn means less days on the water for fishermen and less fish carried home on those days.

The change came on Jan. 1 when NOAA Fisheries rule decreasing Alabama’s red snapper quota.

That result was a drop in the private recreational quota from 1,122,662 pounds in 2022 to 558,200 pounds in 2023.

Opponents of the change said the federal government never took into consideration the data that monitored the red snapper population over the years, including results of the Great Red Snapper Count, a $10 million, multi-year study released in 2021.

Bannon said the study showed there was more red snapper in the Gulf than previously believed.

The history of red snapper regulation is long and complicated. The high-value fish is unique, Bannon said, in that it is one of the most researched and studied fish in the world. It is also the only fish that is regulated by a combination of a federal management plan that provides the quota and the states that manage the season off each of their coasts.

Alabama has led the way, he said, in building artificial reefs to help grow red snapper populations and in monitoring those populations to set annual fishing limits that would not deplete the species.

“With all the work we have put into the Alabama reef zone we didn’t feel like we were getting access to the fish we worked so hard to help produce,” Bannon said.

Efforts to stop the rule until a stock assessment this year failed. That assessment is currently ongoing.

Three states, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, have submitted requests to change the calibration based on more recent catch data. Bannon said that request is going through the federally mandated process and that new numbers are anticipated to be approved by the end of the year.

Additionally, there is already an increase in Annual Catch Limit for red snapper, which is the quota for commercial and recreational fishing, that will provide a small increase in the near future to 591,585 pounds.

Bannon said while fishermen would prefer not to wait out the process, the 2023 season should remain strong through the summer with the current numbers.

“We’re probably going to fish through the summer, it’s just how long through the fall that we don’t know,” Bannon said. “We aren’t happy with the reduced catch quota, but we’re continuing to work on more acceptable levels for Alabama."