Fighting For Atlantic Red Snapper Season
Capt. Robert Johnson
If there is one thing that charter boat operators hate it’s cancelations. It’s comforting to look on your books and see dates filled with potential customers. As soon as it was announced that there would be no South Atlantic red snapper season in 2015, my phone started ringing and trips were canceled.
So how did the fisheries managers come to that decision? The following bullet points explain their reasoning and why this horrible decision has so many anglers frustrated with the process.
1) MRIP: Stands for Marine Recreational Information Program. This is the federal program that estimates the number of red snapper released by anglers. The program uses a saltwater angler registry and reports by port samplers as a means of figuring recreational effort. Everyone agrees it’s not a very good system, but it’s the best available.
2) Discard Mortality: To simplify, this is the amount of fish that supposedly die when released. In red snapper, this is the big issue. Under the old stock assessment (SEDAR 24), the discard rate assigned to recreational anglers is 40 percent, the commercial sector’s rate of 60 percent is higher because of the deeper depths generally fished by commercial boats. So they assume we kill about half of all red snapper we release, and this number is deducted from the allowable catch.
This simply isn’t true. Remember, these are the fish most of us go to great pains to release healthy. There has been some very good work done by dedicated FWC biologists in cooperative research with fishermen that proves those rates are not accurate. The ongoing tagging program and the information provided by recaptures provides a more accurate picture based on real science. The actual discard mortality rate is almost half of what is being applied.
This is the part that frustrates me the most. The new stock assessment on red snapper (SEDAR 41) was supposed to be finished in time for the 2014 season. But, like a lot of things in the fisheries world, it ran into problems and will not be completed until late this year. So the old rate is being used even though we know it is not accurate, and it continues to suppress the fishery.
3) Magnuson Reauthorization: I travelled to D.C. to testify before the Senate during the reauthorization hearings. There has been a great deal made about the added flexibility for management that was put into the reauthorization by both houses of Congress. Sadly, like SEDAR 41, it will not be completed and signed by the president in time to give fishermen in the Southeast any help.
So here we are. Fishermen and local businesses are paying the price for the government’s inability to function in a timely manner. Red snapper are rebuilding, and the estimates, if you include dead discards in 2014, are equal to the largest landings in years. Remember we were only allowed to kill them for eight days. The stock is healthy, overfishing is not occurring, and anglers are going to be penalized because of their abundance using inaccurate numbers.
What can we do? We need to remember politicians work for us. I am pleased to say Florida senators are doing what they can to pressure NOAA to take into consideration the facts I have mentioned. Senators Nelson and Rubio sent a letter to the head of NOAA. We should strongly encourage all of our elected officials to do the same.