August 14, 2017 — The fresher the fish the better. And the savory red snapper is the fish they all want — the fire-up-the-grill catch for the weekend angler, the sought-after restaurant plate, the mainstay of seafood stores.
Lately the snapper on the plate isn’t local. It comes from the Gulf of Mexico.
But this fall, for the first time since 2014, South Carolina anglers might be able to catch red snappers offshore and keep them.
Federal fishery regulators are looking at a “mini season” of maybe a few weekends to allow anglers to harvest the fish they have been forced to throw back since 2014.
That’s when the harvest was closed off, to try to rebuild what was thought to be a depleted stock.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meets Sept. 11 in Charleston to decide. They also will look at allowing a season in July 2018, a measure that would go to public hearings later in the year.