November 1, 2014 — Recreational-fishing advocacy groups have come out with guns blazing after the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council voted at a meeting last week in Mobile, Ala., to further decrease the size of the recreational red-snapper quota.
Reef Fish Amendment 40 awards a yet-to-be-determined amount of fish to the charter-boat industry, and those red snapper will be taken entirely out of the recreational quota.
Approval of the highly controversial plan has stirred the ire of recreational groups, who say their constituents are being almost entirely squeezed out of the fishery. After enduring a nine-day red-snapper season in 2014, anglers will likely see a one- or two-day federal season in 2015, according to David Cresson, executive director of the Coastal Conservation Association.
His organization was disappointed by the council's action, Cresson said, but it wasn't surprised.
"The recreational community has continued to get the short end of the stick throughout this process," he said. "We're dealing with a broken system that is not designed to manage recreational fisheries and cannot do it appropriately.
Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune