A multi-year, independently funded survey of greater amberjack in the Gulf has turned up roughly twice as many fish as the federal government’s official stock assessment, adding fresh momentum to arguments that the long-struggling fishery is healthier than regulators believe.
The Greater Amberjack Count, led by Dr. Sean Powers, director of the Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences at the University of South Alabama, used the same fisheries-independent sampling approach that produced eye-opening results for the Great Red Snapper Count a few years ago. Powers discussed the findings during a break from his judging duties at the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo on Dauphin Island, the annual tournament held each year on the third full weekend of July.
“For the last four years, we’ve been working on this project from North Carolina all the way to Texas to get an independent estimate on greater amberjack, similar to what we did for the Great Red Snapper Count,” Powers said. “The reason we focused on greater amberjack, especially in the Gulf, is that it is a stock that has supposedly been overfished, and overfishing has been occurring, for decades. That really never made sense to us.”
Counting Fish Instead of Counting Catch
Congress appropriated $5 million to NOAA Fisheries and another $5 million to the National Sea Grant College Program to fund the study, which drew on a dozen research institutions spanning the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Rather than relying on angler catch reports, the way traditional stock assessments are built, Powers’ team set out to directly observe amberjack on the reefs, wrecks and natural hard bottom where they live.
“We went out and measured population sizes on different reefs and different habitats where amberjack would occur,” Powers said. “We had 11 different institutions involved doing that for two years.”
In the South Atlantic, stretching from North Carolina to Key West, Florida, the new numbers lined up closely with existing federal estimates: 2.2 million greater amberjack age one and older, compared to the stock assessment’s 2.1 million. But in the Gulf, the gap was stark. NOAA Fisheries’ latest assessment puts the Gulf amberjack population at 1.5 million fish. The Greater Amberjack Count found 3.2 million, roughly double.
“Our estimates were what was matching up with the fishermen,” Powers said. “Fishermen in the South Atlantic really didn’t have many concerns, and it was open all year. However, it’s a completely different story in the Gulf.”
No Season Set for 2026
No greater amberjack season has yet been set for 2026 in the Gulf. Previous seasons were typically scheduled to give anglers something to target while for-hire red snapper season is closed, but they have grown shorter in recent years. The ADSFR hasn’t included an amberjack category in more than 15 years.
“In the Gulf, we’ve had shorter and shorter seasons, and the fishermen are asking why are we doing that because they are abundant,” Powers said. “We hope our study will get reconciled with the stock assessment, because we don’t even have an amberjack season scheduled yet.”
Powers said the harvest limit was exceeded last year, which delayed the start of a new season altogether. He’s hopeful the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will act on the new data.
“We’re hoping the Gulf Council will reconsider it, especially when the fishermen are saying they are abundant,” he said. “I think that’s what they’re going to look at under an emergency rule.”
State Officials Call Findings Promising
Kevin Anson, director of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Marine Resources Division, said the results could help reshape how the fishery is managed.
“Over the last ten to twelve years there have been significant changes in Gulf of America greater amberjack size and bag limits, commercial daily trip limits and season lengths, but the fishery just hasn’t responded as anticipated,” Anson said. “This research may provide managers better information on important biological or behavioral factors that could help with identifying more impactful management options.”
ADCNR Commissioner Chris Blankenship credited Congress, and Alabama’s delegation in particular, for making the study possible.
“Congressional support was needed to help us find out more about this species,” Blankenship said. “The information may lead to more access to amberjack for Alabama anglers and throughout the Gulf, which would be beneficial to coastal communities.”
Powers said U.S. Sen. Katie Britt and her predecessor, former Sen. Richard Shelby, both pushed for the funding after questioning why fisheries managers relied so heavily on assumptions rather than direct observation.
“Senator Britt and Senator Shelby before her were intrigued that we had to make so many assumptions and that we just needed to be out there counting fish,” Powers said.
Cameras Instead of Catch Reports
To get those direct counts, researchers deployed underwater video across the clearer waters of the northern Gulf and acoustic cameras, which use sound rather than light, in the murkier waters off Louisiana and Texas.
“As long as you have a sample size, and you do enough samples in enough different areas, then you can produce the estimate,” Powers said. “You take the number of fish on an artificial reef multiplied by the number of artificial reefs, plus the number of amberjack on natural hard bottom multiplied by the amount of natural hard bottom. It’s not as simple as that, but I prefer those models because if nobody believes us, we can go back through our videos and recount.”
Powers said the method is now the model his team wants to apply to other economically important reef species.
“If we can do these studies on the important species, the economically viable species like red snapper, amberjack and triggerfish, we can get independent estimates and check that with what the stock assessment is telling us,” he said.
Different Fish, Different Coasts
The research also revealed behavioral differences between amberjack stocks. Tagging data confirmed that Gulf and South Atlantic amberjack are genetically distinct populations that may occasionally cross paths near Key West but otherwise stay separate.
“Amberjack are also pretty migratory,” Powers said. “They’ll be here, in the northern Gulf, most of the summer around our reefs. One of the really cool other things we’ve found is that amberjack in our area will stay on a reef for 30, 60 or 90 days, a long time. On the South Atlantic side, those fish are on a site for three or four days.”
Size varies dramatically by region as well. Off Alabama and Florida, amberjack caught by anglers are typically modest, often in the 20-to-40-pound range with an occasional larger catch, and rarely much bigger than the 34-inch fork-length legal minimum. Off Louisiana and Texas, where fishing pressure around oil platforms is lighter, amberjack can grow far larger.
“It’s not unusual for our colleagues to catch amberjack from 60 to 100 pounds,” Powers said. “In our neck of the woods, it’s more like 20 to 30 pounds with an occasional big one. I think that is because of less fishing pressure in the western Gulf.”
Powers said the next step is working with NOAA Fisheries’ National Marine Fisheries Service to reconcile the two data sets.
“We have two different numbers, especially in the Gulf, and we’re working with the National Marine Fisheries Service to try to figure out which parts of each study we can take to produce a better estimate,” he said. “This was two years of fieldwork and four years for the total project.”
More information on the Greater Amberjack Count, including a copy of the final report, is available at the Gulf Sea Grant reef fish extension website.