An experiment playing out in the Gulf of Mexico is helping defuse not only the nation’s most politically charged fishing dispute but also advancing a new way to manage one of the country’s most popular pastimes.
Federal regulators along with the state governments in Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Texas are sharing oversight of red snapper, the reef fish prized by private anglers and seafood lovers across the United States, USA Today reports.
Congress created the two-year pilot program, known as the “experimental fishing permit” program last year. It grants states the day-to-day authority to manage red snapper seasons for recreational fishing in U.S. waters as far as 200 miles from the shoreline.
Normally, state jurisdiction extends to no more than 9 miles off the coast. The catch is that states must follow strict federal fisheries rules and close the season once they’ve reached their quota.
For environmental groups, it means tougher protections apply to the entire red snapper habitat. For the federal government, it’s a chance to test ways of counting fish in an attempt to settle once and for all just how many there are swimming around the Gulf. And for recreational anglers, it means more time to fish for red snapper in federal waters that in recent years have had short seasons.
“We definitely have to get away from the federal government telling us how many fish we can catch,” says Justin Lee Fadalla, 31, a private boat angler from Mobile, Alabama. “We really need the state (managing) and actually doing these research trips. They know how many snapper are out there. When you go out and catch your limit in 10 minutes, there’s not a shortage of red snapper.”
Read the full story.
The Red Snapper experiment: How the federal government and Gulf Coast states are counting fish
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