“How is the red snapper fishing?” At certain times of the year, that question gets asked more than “What’s for dinner?” Answers vary widely, even from fishermen in the same circle of friends or the same port. It can be influenced by variables like dock bravado, who is listening, who is asking, or if it’s happy hour or not.
No matter what is said when this coveted question is asked, there have been some questioning the state of the Gulf of America’s red snapper stock. Some people will say “I have no problem catching red snappers,” and that maybe true in the small pocket of the Gulf where they fish. Yet a lot of the fishermen and women, including myself, feel there are issues with the stock. The data — both federal and Gulf states — backs this up.
For a few years, reports of “localized depletion” have come from all over the Gulf. At what point can we just call it what it is: depletion? All of us want longer seasons, but we want them because of a healthy stock. The truth is, we’re catching smaller fish more frequently, and more of those fish must be discarded due to size restrictions. These discards often don’t survive, contributing to mortality — further weakening the stock.
The collective ability of the anglers to catch fish has vastly increased thanks to the growth in the number of anglers as well as improvements in charting and boat handling technology. If we continue this trend, extra days we get now could be paid for in lost opportunity in future years.
Once the state recreational and for-hire seasons got over 70 days we started seeing the stock struggle to replenish itself. Over the last three years the average size fish has decreased, reducing the abundance of large breeding fish, which is the cornerstone of a resilient fish stock.
As we begin to see the stock decline it creates a chain reaction. As the older age classes of fish are removed from the stock, it starts to affect the stock’s ability to replenish itself. A 3-pound fish will produce around 2.5 million eggs, a 7-pound fish almost 50 million, and a 16-pound fish around 125 million eggs per year.
Longer seasons give opportunity for bigger breeding fish to be harvested, crippling the ability to replenish. Mature fish produce higher quality eggs, providing greater opportunity to produce a healthier fishery.
Without enough of these fish, we lose the quality of the next generation. It’s the reason we need management practices that build resilient stocks with quality access instead of just managing for access alone.
A declining fishery affects everyone: anglers, for-hire operators, commercial fishermen, and coastal communities. This is why for-hire leadership was concerned about too much of an increase in catch when the “Great Red Snapper Count” report first came out.
Unfortunately, politics crept into the scientific process. This led to the push to “reanalyze” the data multiple times, increasing the allocation from 300,000 pounds to almost 1 million pounds. This stressed the scientific credibility of how catch advise is produced.
A higher abundance was shown in the study but that did not translate into a significant increase in catch because of the uncertainty the study injected into the stock assessment. You combine this political increase with the significant delay due to reanalyzing multiple times and you have a fishery that was prosecuted above a sustainable rate for multiple years. Which is why we are seeing this decline.
Snapper declines happened in the 1980s, in the early 2000s, and now we are seeing it happen in the 2020s. With more fishermen on the water, managers must strive for regulations that ensures both maximum access and a healthy abundant stock to support our coastal communities. It is the nation’s resource, and we need to break the cycle of having to rebuild this fishery every 20 to 25 years.
This is not insurmountable. The good news is we are just starting to see the decline and have time to make changes. We do have different variables with predation more prevalent and ecological changes happening, but a resilient fishery will handle this better.
To meet this challenge, we must work together to invest in timely, transparent science. NOAA Fisheries provides essential services such as assessments, surveys, monitoring, and streamlining data programs that help managers make informed decisions. Budget and staffing cuts to that agency risks our ability to restore American fishing and seafood competitiveness.
Capt. Jim Green
President, Destin Charter Boat Association
This article originally appeared on The Destin Log: Red snapper: The need to balance access with healthy fishery | Opinion
Reporting by The Destin Log / The Destin Log
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
