August 25, 2015 — Debate over regional management of the Gulf of Mexico recreational red snapper fishery moved from Washington, D.C. to the Crescent City as the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council met for the fourth time this year. In a highly contested vote, the Council voted to remove snapper quota from the commercial fishery while allocating additional quota to the recreational sector.
The Council’s action on Reef Fish Amendment 28 would allocate the increase in allowable harvest due to recalibration of Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) catch estimates to the recreational sector. The resulting allocation for 2016 – 2017 would be 48.5% commercial and 51.5% recreational.
For years, Amendment 28 has gone through numerous iterations as it has been under consideration by the Gulf Council. The current red snapper fishery is divided almost 50-50 between the commercial and recreational sectors. Some alternatives considered in Amendment 28 could have shifted millions of pounds of fish and done untold damage to commercial fishermen, the seafood supply chain, restaurants and grocery stores.
The Council’s final action will retain a portion of the commercial red snapper quota in 2016 to ensure that the IFQ quota intended for reallocation is not distributed among commercial fishermen before Amendment 28 is implemented.
“Gulf Council members friendly to the commercial coalition were able to defeat Alternative 9, the effort to take approximately 1.2 million pounds of red snapper from the commercial sector, but were unable to stop the motion to reallocate 380,000 pounds of our commercial quota,” said Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) Board President Harlon Pearce, owner of Harlon’s LA Fish in New Orleans. “Amendment 28 was passed with an allocation change of approximately a 2.5% shift in the recreational fishery’s favor, and is now being sent to the Secretary of Commerce for final approval.”
Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Institute