May 15, 2014 — After another year when federal fisheries managers have announced three different recreational red snapper seasons, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and CCA-Louisiana executive director David Cresson are calling for passage of the Red Snapper Conservation Act.
Landrieu said she and Cresson met with Sen. Mark Begich, D-Ark., the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, to push for changes in red snapper management after National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries managers announced a nine-day recreational red snapper season in federal waters. The announced season is set to run from 12:01 a.m. local time June 1 to a close at 12:01 a.m. June 10.
It’s the third announced season after NOAA regional director Roy Crabtree announced a 40-day season late last year, a season that was reduced to 11 days by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council met in Baton Rouge in early April.
In Wednesday’s GMFMC announcement, NOAA managers said the reduction in the number of recreational days was traced to the Council’s addition of a 20 percent buffer in the estimated daily take and number of pounds Gulf-wide by recreational anglers. That 20 percent buffer was set in place to ensure recreational anglers did not exceed their annual quota, which is 49 percent of the current total allowable annual red snapper take of 11 million pounds. Commercial fishermen get 51 percent of that total.
Read the full story at The Advocate