Red snapper fishing restricted in federal waters

Upping the ante in a federal-state clash over red snapper fishing, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced today that it will reduce the 2008 season in federal waters by almost two months.

The shortened red snapper season, which will now end Aug. 5 instead of Sept. 30, was necessary because Texas and Florida have refused to follow the federal lead on red snapper and allowed looser rules in their state waters, says the NMFS announcement in the Southeast Fishery Bulletin.

Red snapper fishing has been in turmoil for years since federal scientists determined that the stock is under too much pressure. Last year, the fishery service reduced the recreational bag limit from 4 fish to 2 and installed a six-month season that ran from April 21 through Oct. 31. They were trying to keep recreational fishing within a 3.185-million pound quota.

Texas, where red snapper fishing is an important cog in the tourist economy, declined to go along, keeping the four-fish limit and a year-around season in state waters, which extend nine miles from the coast. Florida also kept its four-fish limit in state waters.

In 2007, the commercial sector stayed within its 3.3-million pound quota, but recreational fishermen exceeded their quota by 1-million pounds. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council responded by ractheting down the recreational quota even further. To hit that target, the council shortened the recreational season from June 1 through September 30.

Texas stuck to its guns: 4 fish bag limit and year-around fishing. Florida dropped its bag limit to two fish, but set its season at April 15 through October 31, 78 days longer than the federal season. Red snapper are a primary target for summertime charter boats and anglers in the Panhandle.

Now the feds have lobbed one back, closing federal waters to snapper fishing as of Aug. 5, essentially a two-month season. The same rules will apply in 2009, NMFS said.

Fishermen in the Tampa Bay area traditionally have not targeted red snapper as much as grouper. But for the past few years, they have reported an increasingly heavy red snapper bite. Snapper are aggressive feeders and will often hit bait before it can get down to bottom-feeding grouper. Even with most of the snapper season closed,  grouper fishermen are likely to hook and kill  thousands of snapper.

--Stephen Nohlgren, Times Staff Writer