What? No more "snapper" hunting!

So Rick, is this a good thing?
From your icon I guess it might be a controversial decision?

Foxfish - That area of the Atlantic isn't my stomping ground, so I'm sure others can comment in greater detail, but we on the Gulf Coast have been following this as much of the same "science" is used to set our limits and seasons.

Basically, based on what is almost universally agreed to be flawed data, the committee closed ALL bottom fishing in almost 5000 square miles of prime coastline, to protect 1 species, which almost everyone who fishes or dives agrees is more abundant now than ever before.

In a twist of logic, they claim that the stocks have recovered to the point where anyone fishing is likely to catch and possibly kill red snapper. So to protect them further we must prohibit fishing.

They did this effective immediately, even though a new report on the fishery health is due out in about 6 months. To many among us, the decisions seem to be based on almost anything but the real health of the fishery. Politics, recreational vs. commercial, Extreme Environmentalism (i.e. fish feel pain - all fishing is bad), take your pick.

For a slightly different take:

Long long ago, I was a fishery biologist working for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and often watched in frustration as fishery after fishery was allowed to be over-fished into near oblivion. As soon as somebody would suggest some serious limit on catch (which was obviously needed) 200 fishermen would stand up and howl. And little got done. I don't follow the councils much anymore, but something seems to have changed for the better. I'm all in favor.

Tell you a story that illustrates some of the problem. I was taking testimony from a spotter pilot of king mackeral, about how abundant the fish were and why no regulation was needed (this at a time when the fishery for kings was collapsing fast). He was telling the truth, he saw lots of fish, and he had been spotting for 5 whole years. He hadn't seen any reduction, there's more than there ever were, so there must not be any problem. Trouble is,5 years isn't very long, He hadn't been around for the 30 years or more that the fishery had been declining, when the fish were so abundant nobody needed an airplane to find them. His "eye witness, experienced" view was just plain ignorant.

Snapper are not my thing, grouper and hogfish are, and have been for 40 years. There was a time when, If I didn't have 150 lbs of grouper(all speared) in the boat by 2 pm, I'd had a very bad day. I've seen the steady progression of decline in those resources in the eastern Gulf and S Florida, personally. Few, if any, of my old spots have any fish at all on them today. Some extremely restrictive measures are long, long overdue. I'll not try to second guess those who are making the details of those decisions. Thankfully, they don't seem to be listening to howling fishermen.

Connor

While i agree with a lot of what you said but once they put a restriction on a fish, GOOD LUCK having it ever reversed or changed.

Valid point, the system doesn't work as well as it should, in either direction. Jewfish is a great example. Restrictive management has been a huge success. Rare 25 years ago, now they are everywhere. Its time to catch some, but getting the regs changed is unreasonably hard.

Still, I'd much rather be in a position where there are lots of fish and the regs need changing, rather than no regs and no fish.

Connor

In my opinion, ALL fish should be closed during their spawning season. I am ok with that for even species that are flourishing.