Recreational anglers along the Alabama Gulf Coast will again have only nine days to catch red snapper in federal waters this year, a decision announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that has drawn sharp criticism from the state’s congressional delegation and coastal fishing communities.
Under the new rule, the private angling and recreational sector will be allowed to fish for red snapper in federal waters beginning June 1 and ending at 12:01 a.m. on June 10, 2016. Charter boats holding federal permits will have a considerably longer window, with a 46-day season running from June 1 through July 17.
The announcement follows more than a year of legislative pressure from Gulf Coast lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, who have pushed to give Gulf states more authority over setting season lengths and monitoring the size and health of the red snapper population, rather than leaving those decisions solely to federal regulators.
Along with the season dates, NOAA Fisheries approved a final rule reallocating how the overall snapper quota is split between commercial and recreational fishermen. The allocation had previously favored the commercial sector 51 percent to 49 percent, but the new split shifts the balance in favor of recreational anglers, 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent. Federal officials said the change reflects updated data on the Gulf’s red snapper population gathered during the 2014 season that better accounts for the recreational fishery’s actual catch history.
NOAA also released updated poundage quotas for the next two fishing years. The commercial quota is set at 6.768 million pounds for 2016, dropping slightly to 6.664 million pounds in 2017. The overall recreational quota was set at 7.192 million pounds for 2016 and 7.076 million pounds for 2017, with the private angling portion of that total set at 4.150 million pounds this year and 4.083 million pounds next year.
Seth Morrow, communications director for Byrne’s office, said the congressman was deeply frustrated by the announcement and remains convinced that Gulf states, not the federal government, should be responsible for setting red snapper seasons. Byrne himself was more blunt in his reaction, calling a nine-day season “a disgrace for Alabama’s fishermen.”
“This type of ‘derby-style’ season poses serious challenges and puts the safety of our fishermen at risk,” Byrne said. “There are plenty of red snapper in the Gulf, but the federal government continues to do a terrible job counting the number of fish as well as the number caught each year.”
Byrne’s frustration traces back to legislation passed in the U.S. House last June that would reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the federal law governing fishery management in offshore waters. That measure included reforms authored by Byrne intended to shift more red snapper decision-making authority to Gulf states. The bill, H.R. 1335, has passed the House but remains stalled in the Senate.
While the federal season remains short, anglers fishing in Alabama’s state waters will have far more opportunity to catch red snapper this year. Chris Blankenship, director of the Marine Resources Division within the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said the state season will run 66 days, opening May 27 and continuing through the end of July.
Blankenship said the longer state season was approved by Conservation Commissioner Gunter Guy based on years of research conducted in partnership with the University of South Alabama, which has found a substantially larger snapper population off Alabama’s coast than federal estimates suggest.
“We’ve been funding some research with USA for several years, and as part of that research Dr. Sean Powers estimates Alabama has around 20 million pounds of red snapper off the coast,” Blankenship said. “The landings for last year were right at a million pounds, and that leaves plenty of snapper in the water for us to support a season longer than nine days.”
Alabama’s state waters extend from the coastline out to nine miles into the Gulf of Mexico, a relatively narrow band compared to the deeper federal waters where most of the region’s artificial reefs are located. Blankenship acknowledged that state waters have fewer reefs than the federal zone farther offshore, but said the extended season still gives both recreational and commercial fishermen more opportunity to fish in the areas available to them.
“That’s why we think a season through July 31st is appropriate,” Blankenship said. “We’re not trying to keep it open year-round or anything like that, but we do think a season that length is commensurate with the resources we have available.”
The debate over red snapper season length has become an annual flashpoint along the Alabama coast, pitting federal fishery managers against state officials, university researchers and charter boat operators who argue the Gulf’s snapper population has rebounded far more than federal data reflects. With H.R. 1335 still pending in the Senate, state officials and Gulf Coast lawmakers say they will continue pressing for a longer-term fix that would give Alabama and its neighboring Gulf states more direct control over the fishery in the years ahead.