The night before Florida’s recreational anglers were supposed to have the first 29 days of a new 39-day red snapper fishing season in the Atlantic Ocean, a judge put a stop to it.
A commercial fishing trade association and others filed a May 5 lawsuit challenging a plan by President Donald Trump and the Department of Commerce to let Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas manage the Atlantic red snapper fishery.
A judge on May 21 issued an injunction stating “the EFPs (exempted fishing permits) are without effect until further order from this court, and that the EFPs shall therefore not be acted upon,” U.S. Judge Rudolph Contreras wrote.
That means zero red snapper fishing days until the court renders a decision.
U.S. judge halts Florida red snapper fishing season
Contreras agreed with the Southeastern Fisheries Association and several commercial fishers’ lawsuit claiming the new red snapper fishing rules are “arbitrary and capricious” because the plaintiffs “satisfied their burden on each factor,” the judge ruled.
It was unclear May 21 what the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission planned to tell anglers or how the agency planned to enforce the no-fishing rules on May 22. The FWC on May 21 told TCPalm it would respond to questions and/or issue a statement on May 22.
However, NOAA Fisheries issued after 8 p.m. on May 21 a statement that stated: “the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order granting the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, halting activities under the exempted fishing permits (EFPs) that authorized the 2026 state recreational red snapper seasons in the South Atlantic.”
“The South Atlantic EFPs for Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina are no longer in effect until further order from the Court, and the recreational harvest of red snapper in the South Atlantic remains closed. All recreational fishing under these South Atlantic EFPs is not authorized, including tomorrow’s start date of May 22, 2026, for Florida’s recreational red snapper season. Contact your state agency for further details.”
Fort Pierce charter fishing captain Richard Hunt, of Little Adam Fishing, was miffed since he filled out the state paperwork and spent money to start fishing for red snapper on May 22.
“We have planned for this day and we are all excited it,” Hunt told TCPalm. “I am not supposed to go fish? I bought $200 worth of bait and will be spending about $275 on gas.”
Trump plan challenged by commercial fishing trade association
Trump on May 1 announced the 2026 recreational red snapper fishing season would be:Florida: May 22-June 20, then Oct. 2-4, Oct. 9-11 and Oct. 16-18Georgia and the Carolinas: 62 days, starting opening July 1
Gov. Ron DeSantis held two news conferences in Fort Myers and Jacksonville earlier this month to tout the new 39-day season, which increased from two days in 2025.
“Florida is the most angler-friendly state in the nation, and under my leadership, we are committed to expanding and protecting recreational fishing opportunities,” DeSantis said May 11. “With a record 39-day Atlantic red snapper season and a record-breaking 140-day Gulf red snapper season, Florida is empowering our anglers, protecting our waters, strengthening our coastal economy. And this is just the beginning.”
Florida managing red snapper will ‘decimate’ fishery, critics say
Data show the fish are too young to reproduce fast enough to rebuild the stock, especially with explosive population growth and more and better fishing and boating technology, the lawsuit argues.
In Florida alone, 485,000 red snapper could be caught in 2026 — over 20 times the annual catch limit of 22,797. That violates the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which is the federal law that governs federal fisheries, the Ocean Conservancy argued. That doesn’t even count the other three states.
During Florida’s two-day season, anglers landed 24,885 red snapper, which also exceeded the annual catch limit.
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“Opening the red snapper season for two months — when last year it was two days — is fast-tracking the crash of this species,” said Meredith Moore, the Ocean Conservancy’s senior director of fish conservation. “There’s just no way the stock can endure this level of fishing pressure so we can continue to fish for red snapper in the long-term.”
That will “decimate the red snapper fishery,” Ocean Conservancy Executive Director Bob Zales told TCPalm. “It’s all about politics and it has nothing to do with science. We want everyone to catch fish, but the resource is for everyone to share. We support science-guided decisions.”The FWC board, which approved the new fishing season on May 13, rushed to give recreational anglers more fishing days without taking into account how many anglers will fish, how many fish they will catch, and how many smaller fish they will discard, Zales said.
Because Florida has the largest recreational fishing fleet and the largest distribution of red snapper in the South Atlantic, its catch will account for the lion’s share of all red snapper caught, the lawsuit states.In the 1990s and early 2000s, overfishing drove the red snapper spawning population to 11% of its historical level. In response, federal fishery managers reduced the seasons to rebuild the stock through 2044. The new rules risk undermining the progress that’s been made and threaten fishing for decades, the Ocean Conservancy said.
Tim O’Hara is TCPalm’s environment reporter. Contact him at tim.ohara@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: U.S. judge stops Florida’s new red snapper fishing on eve of season
Reporting by Timothy O’Hara, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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