April 9, 2013 — The following was released by the Pew Charitable Trusts:
The price of going rogue
If Florida joins other states in allowing more red snapper fishing in state waters, federal fishery managers will cut the season for this fish in federal waters from 28 days to 21 days. The shortened season, set to start June 1, would be needed to avoid exceeding Gulf-wide catch quotas that are necessary to ensure continued recovery of the once-dwindling species.
Mississippi and Alabama recreational fishermen will be allowed 28 days in federal waters off their coasts because their state rules match federal rules. Louisiana will get 9 fishing days in federal waters, and Texas will have 12 days because of their differing state rules.
State waters extend nine nautical miles off west Florida and Texas and three nautical miles off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. A shorter federal season will negatively affect several groups of fishermen in Florida:
– Federally-permitted charter boat operators must, as a condition of their permits, abide by the stricter of state or federal rules and seasons. If Florida ends up with fewer fishing days in its federal waters, charter operators will have to throw back the majority or all of the red snapper their clients catch while anglers in state waters can still haul red snapper aboard. If Florida matched its state rules to federal rules, charter boat captains could have an additional week’s worth of fishing because Florida’s federal season would not be shortened and would span the full 28 days. This impact will be especially felt in the Panhandle, where red snapper fishing is important to the area’s economy.
– Commercial fishermen have operated under a federal quota system for six years and have stayed under their red snapper limit by an average of 2 percent a year. By comparison, recreational fishermen have exceeded their quotas in five of the past six years by an annual average of 1.3 million pounds or 44 percent. Commercial fishermen are held to their quotas through strict oversight and regulation. When recreational fishermen exceed their limits, the overage cuts into future increases in commercial catch quotas as well as the following year’s recreational season.
– Anglers in the Tampa and Southwest Florida areas will see their access to red snapper cut in half compared with anglers in the Panhandle. That’s because red snapper along the Florida peninsula are generally farther offshore in federal waters. So that gives Florida’s west coast fishermen only 21 days during the shorter federal season to catch red snapper. By comparison, Panhandle fishermen, where red snapper are closer to shore, will have 44 days of access during the expanded state season.
Overall, if states do not adopt fishing regulations that are consistent with the federal government’s, red snapper’s recovery is at risk. Currently, federal managers set a single catch limit based on recommendations from their science advisors. If individual states set separate limits, it is harder to monitor and enforce. It also makes it more difficult to collect catch data that is crucial to setting limits in the first place.
The biggest news from the new red snapper population study
The assessment likely will show that this once-depleted fish is showing signs of continued recovery and that catch limits can be raised incrementally as populations increase. However, full recovery is still many years away because more of these slow-growing, late-to-fully mature fish must reach their best spawning years to maintain the momentum of population growth. Top spawning years occur after the fish reach 10, but most are now between 4 and 7 years old.
The recovery plan’s goal is for 26 percent of the Gulf-wide red snapper population to reach peak spawning capability by 2032. This goal is much lower than for many other Gulf species, such as snook which is set at 40 percent, and spotted sea trout at 35 percent. In 2009, red snapper was estimated at just 8 percent. The new study likely will put this percentage in the mid-teens—slightly more than halfway to being fully recovered.
A 30-inch female red snapper (about a 10-year-old fish) produces 16 times as many eggs as a 16-inch female (about 3 years old), according to data from the new population study. While it’s important to protect these older females, it’s equally important to avoid fishing out future generations of spawners. (Graphic may be reproduced with credit to Pew).
The red snapper population analysis is based on numerous studies and sources of data. Some fishermen have questioned whether large groups of red snapper that congregate around artificial reefs and oil and gas platforms are counted when determining population numbers. They are. Fish caught by recreational anglers, including those around reefs and platforms, are sampled at the docks by biologists. And while all research does not analyze fish in those areas, some scientific studies used in the population analysis include the reef and platform information.
Why the federal recreational fishing season is short
Managers set fishing seasons by estimating how long it will take anglers to catch their allotted limit. There are three reasons for the short 2013 season.
– Anglers are catching fatter fish. Catch limits are set in pounds. But as red snapper grow larger, the pounds add up faster. That means it takes fewer individual fish to reach the limit. To illustrate, in 2012, the average red snapper weighed 7.07 pounds, more than double the 3.32 pounds in 2007 before a revised recovery plan went into effect. Total allowable recreational catch went from 3,530,000 pounds in 2010 to 3,959,000 pounds in 2012. But those figures represent fewer fish because red snapper are larger. Some recreational fishermen argue for setting the catch limit in numbers of fish. However, that does not automatically mean there would be more fish to catch. The same pound limit would be translated into numbers of fish, so it’s just a different way to do the math.
– As part of their recovery, the fish are dispersing over a wider area of the Gulf, so more fishermen are able to catch them, and they’re meeting the quota faster. In fact, recreational fishermen are catching fish at three times the rate they did in 2007—an estimated 18,000 fish per day now as compared to 6,000 fish per day before the current recovery plan. If fishermen exceed their quota in one year, managers adjust the length of the recreational fishing season the following year to keep the catch from going over the quota again. The shorter 2013 season is partly due to last year’s breach of the recreational limit. As a group, recreational fishermen haveexceeded their catch limit in five of the past six years, by an annual average of more than 1 million pounds or 44 percent.
– Pending the outcome of the current population study, which likely will result in a new allowable catch limit based on the improved health of the population, the 2013 fishing season could be extended if catches do not lead to overages of the Gulf-wide quota.
Patience please
Managers are exploring several new approaches to keep better tabs on the amount of red snapper caught so next year’s season is not cut short due to excess catch from this one. The goal is to keep the rebuilding plan on track and also to allow for more fishing opportunities.
The red snapper population isn’t expected to continue gaining weight as fast as it has recently. Similar to children, these fish may have growth spurts, but they eventually level out. And if the population continues to rebuild while catch amounts remain within allowable limits, fishery managers expect to increase allowable catch each year. Eventually that will mean more individual, not just heavier, fish to go around.
This year, the total catch for commercial and recreational fishermen is set at 8.46 million pounds—almost back to where it was before the rebuilding plan started. A further increase may be possible later this year after the new population study is completed. Current projections show the catch limit will continue increasing until it reaches 14 million pounds when the species is fully recovered in 2032.
Red snapper’s decline was decades in the making. Chronic overfishing depleted the population and, until recently, mangers set allowable catch amounts that exceeded or pushed the limits of what the fish could sustain. This dilemma cannot be reversed in just a few years for such a long-lived fish. While early signs of recovery may tempt some fishermen and managers to favor more aggressive fishing rates now, only a cautious, long-term view will keep the species’ population growth on track.