Contact: Scott Smullen FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301) 713-2370 12/23/94
Robert Sadler
(813) 570-5305
To help rebuild the overfished stock of Gulf of Mexico red snapper, the National Marine Fisheries Service today approved recommendations to reduce the daily recreational catch limit and increase the minimum allowable fish size in the fishery. The agency also delayed the 1995 commercial season until late February.
The fisheries service action will delay the Jan. 1, 1995, opening of the Gulf of Mexico commercial red snapper season until Feb. 24, 1995, when seasonal demand for fish is higher. Effective Jan. 1, the daily recreational catch, or bag limit, will be reduced from seven to five fish, and the minimum allowable size for recreational anglers will increase from 14 inches to 15 inches.
The action is aimed at ensuring the total annual catch of red snapper remains within the level set by the fishery management plan for reef fish resources of the Gulf of Mexico, and at rebuilding the red snapper stock according to the schedule set by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Councilþs plan.
"Fishery landings of red snapper dropped to historical lows in the late 1980s, but through management the resource has been recovering," said Andy Kemmerer, Southeast regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service. "This recovery, however, is extremely dependent on maintaining effective management, which means strict adherence to commercial and recreational quotas and allocations. Without this, recovery will be jeopardized and the resource could collapse. Given a chance, the approved measures will maintain the rebuilding schedule to a level that will ensure sustainable harvest."
While reducing the recreational bag limit may seem contrary for a recovering resource, the science and rationale for the reduction is solid, the agency said. The average size of the fish has significantly increased since the seven-fish bag limit was imposed, roughly by 80 percent. Also, the number of recreational trips landing red snapper has grown, no doubt due to the greatly increased availability of the fish. These two factors combined led to major increases in recreational landings, which resulted in overruns of the allocation for three years straight.
However, NMFS rejected the Council's initial recommendation to prohibit captains and crews of charter vessels and headboats from retaining red snapper under the recreational bag limit. According to agency officials, the best scientific information indicates that any conservation benefits from the proposed zero bag limit for captains and crews, in addition to benefits of other approved measures, would be small. Additionally, the Council did not provide sufficient information to establish whether the proposed measure was consistent with the Magnuson Act's national standards.
Agency officials predict a healthy red snapper resource, which is no longer overfished, by the year 2009 under the rebuilding plan. The Councilþs reef fish management plan, which encompasses red snapper, has a goal of achieving a 20 percent spawning potential ratio (SPR) for red snapper and a target date for stock recovery of 2009. SPR is used to estimate the status of the overfished resource and NMFS scientists indicate that SPR has increased from less than one percent in 1984, to about two percent in 1994 -- still well below the target 20 percent. This small increase in stock size, or health, has been due to a relatively strong year class of young red snapper as well as the conservation measures already in place.
The Council's original recommendations for the 1995 red snapper measures were made under a framework procedure for annual adjustments in fishery management measures as provided by the Council's reef fish plan. These measures were submitted to NMFS for review, approval and implementation. However, after the start of the public comment period on its proposal, the Council asked NMFS to withdraw all measures except for the minimum fish size and delay of the commercial season.
According to officials, NMFS fully considered the Council's withdrawal request as a comment on the proposed rule, but the status of the stock compelled the agency to approve the Councilþs originally proposed bag limit of five fish. The science points to a severely overfished stock and a recreational bag limit of seven fish clearly would result in recreational catches significantly exceeding the fishery's allocation.
The 1994 red snapper stock assessment showed that the recreational harvest exceeded its allocation in 1992 and 1993, and in all likelihood will in 1994. The Councilþs initial recommendations were intended to limit recreational catches to the fishery's allocation in 1995.
Current scientific projections indicate the possibility that the recreational fishery may exceed its 1995 allocation even under the approved measures. Accordingly, NMFS has asked the Council to closely monitor fishery landings and to consider further restrictions if necessary.