Florida recreational anglers will have 39 days in the Atlantic Ocean to catch red snapper in 2026, a dramatic increase from the mere two-day season in 2025.
The proposed season is:
Atlantic red snapper has been approved for state management and an expanded season effective on May 22, Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X.
“We just delivered a huge win for our great fishermen and anglers in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina,” President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on May 1. “We have just officially approved all state permits for the 2026 red snapper recreational season.”
Florida adds more red snapper fishing days in Atlantic
Not everyone is pleased about the state taking control and allowing more fishing days.
“These exempted fishing permits are an end-run around sustainable management,” said Ocean Conservancy’s Senior Director of Fish Conservation Meredith Moore. “Just last year, NOAA’s own analysis showed that a two-day recreational fishing season was needed to prevent overfishing. There is no doubt that these exemptions to allow months-long fishing seasons will lead to overfishing, while new, unproven data collection measures mean we likely won’t even realize the fish are declining until the damage is done.”
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act — the U.S.’s primary law governing fishing in federal waters — requires that NOAA Fisheries set annual catch limits to prevent overfishing. While the final text of the exemptions has not yet been released, the draft proposals submitted by states failed to meet this basic requirement. The proposed exemptions also implement changes in recreational data collection that circumvent existing processes and may result in data that does not meet necessary standards for management, according to Oceana.
The recreational fishery (both for-hire and private anglers) remains open-access, and regional population growth combined with increases in available technologies has led to a steady increase in fishing pressure, especially off the east coast of Florida, where over 90% of red snapper catch is reported, Oceana said.
“Overfishing means sacrificing chances to teach the next generation to fish in order to fill coolers this season,” said Ocean Conservancy’s Director of Florida Conservation J.P. Brooker, an environmental lawyer, avid angler and seventh-generation Floridian. “Red snapper is a favorite of Floridians and out of state anglers. No one likes short fishing seasons, but if we don’t follow the science and let these fish recover, we could soon lose this cherished fishing season for good.”
Ocean Conservancy has used available data to estimate the amount of fish that could be caught with exempted permits. The annual catch limit for the recreational sector is 22,797 fish. A recent two- day red snapper fishing season in Florida alone resulted in 24,885 landed fish, which exceeds that limit.
A simple expansion using this Florida landings rate, and ignoring the contribution from other states which will have even longer fishing seasons, suggests that as many as 485,000 fish could be landed in a 39-day season. This is over 20 times the annual catch limit — a clear violation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Oceana said.
NOAA Fisheries and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council had overseen Atlantic red snapper management in federal waters from Florida to North Carolina. The governors of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina lobbied the president to allow their states to take control in hopes of giving anglers more fishing days.
Anglers hope that will increase the number of fishing days, as it did after the state took over on the west coast in 2018. In 2025, there were two fishing days in the Atlantic and 126 in the Gulf of Mexico, which the Trump administration renamed the Gulf of America.
Tim O’Hara is TCPalm’s environment reporter. Contact him at tim.ohara@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: President Trump approves more Florida red snapper fishing days
Reporting by Timothy O’Hara, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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