GULF RED SNAPPER: PRIVATE BOAT OVERAGES MAY STILL THREATEN REBUILDING

The recreational red snapper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico has a long history of problems, headlined by chronic overfishing in the private boat sector.  

While the commercial fishery embraced accountability and ended its overfishing in 2007, and the for-hire sector also recognized and welcomed the benefits of accountability in 2014, the private boat sector continued to take more fish than it was entitled to through at least 2017.

Finally, in 2018, a new program intended to better regulate the private boat sector was initiated through the exempted fishing permit process.  Under that program, which was similar to programs long used in the Mid-Atlantic to manage species such as black sea bass and summer flounder, the National Marine Fisheries Service would continue to set the overall recreational harvest limit.  Portions of that recreational harvest limit were then allocated to each Gulf Coast state which would, within limits, be permitted to set regulations intended to keep recreational landings within each state’s allocation.

The experimental program continued through 2019, and preliminary results seemed to show that it was working.  Recreational red snapper landings, as measured by the Marine Recreational Information Program, did not appear to exceed the recreational harvest limit, while regulations crafted to complement each state’s unique fishery permitted longer fishing seasons.

Things seemed to be working out so well that, on February 6, 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, parent agency of the National Marine Fisheries Service, gave final approval to Amendments 50A-F to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources in the Gulf of Mexico, which permanently adopted the cooperative state/federal management approach.

Unfortunately, things are not always as they seem.

The problem, as so often is the case, came down to recreational landings estimates.

The state allocations set under Amendment 50 were based on MarineRecreational Information Program reporting.  However, the various Gulf States have largely eschewed MRIP when gauging their red snapper landings, and instead use other survey methods that range from the state-of-the-art LACreel in Louisiana and Tails ‘n Scales in Mississippi, to an aged, obsolete and probably highly inaccurate survey in Texas.

The estimates produced by each of the state surveys differ from those produced by the MRIP survey.  While managers have been able to identify a relationship between four of the five state surveys and MRIP (only the ancient Texas survey has not been amenable to such treatment), and can correlate the different state estimates into a sort of “common currency” that allows them to be directly compared to MRIP, the Gulf Council has not yet adopted that common currency into its calculations, but instead is still basing its decisions on the MRIP figures.

That could easily lead to private boat anglers overfishing the red snapper stock, because in many cases, the difference between the state survey and MRIP is substantial.  

NMFS’ Southeast Regional Office produced preliminary adjustments to state red snapper quotas that suggest that Alabama’s private boat quota should be reduced from 1,122,662 to 474,260 pounds—nearly a 58% reduction.  Mississippi would experience even a greater proportional reduction—almost 63%--dropping its allocation from 151,550 pounds to 56,378.  Louisiana would only be reduced by 30%, from 816,233 pounds to 575,036, while Florida would actually receive a small, 7% increase, that would raise its allocation from 1,913,451 to 2,045,862 pounds.  As mentioned before, no similar correlation ratio exists for Texas, where a survey little better—or maybe a little worse—that pure guesswork drives private boat red snapper estimates.

To provide an interim fix for the problem, the Ocean Conservancy has asked the National Marine Fisheries Service to issue a temporary regulation converting each state’s private recreational vessel allocation into a figure reflecting the impact of such state’s red snapper survey.  It said, in part, that it

“affirmatively supports Amendment 50’s delegation of some aspects of management of the private recreational red snapper fishery to the five Gulf States.  However, discrepancies between the state survey data units and the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) Coastal Household Telephone Survey (CHTS) units currently used to set [annual catch limits] raise the significant possibility that the states will exceed their individual portions as well as the total private recreational [annual catch limit] without triggering the necessary accountability measures to prevent catch overages.  It is critical that NMFS complete simple-ratio calibrations to convert data between the state and MRIP surveys.  Anything short of swift implementation of data calibrations undermines the federally mandated red snapper rebuilding plan, puts the livelihood of Gulf fishermen at risk and jeopardizes the future of the recreational red snapper fishery.”

NMFS doesn’t disagree.  In its response to comments made as part of the Amendment 50 process, it stated that

“NMFS agrees that the state [annual catch limits] should be calibrated to each state’s reporting system.  The NMFS Office of Science & Technology is working with the Gulf states to develop a peer-reviewed calibration that it is expected to be available in the spring of 2020.  When the calibration is available, NMFS intends to apply it to the established state [annual catch limits] and implement catch limits in the appropriate state currencies through appropriate rulemaking.  When implemented, each state’s landings will be compared to its revised [annual catch limit], to determine if there was an overage.  As noted previously, this rule requires that each state pay back any overage in a fishing year during the following fishing year.  Because the rule adjusting the state [annual catch limits] may not be complete until late 2020, NMFS intends to inform each state of any anticipated change in its [annual catch limit] as soon as possible in order to allow the states to set or modify their management measures, as appropriate.  This will help assure that the private angling [annual catch limit] is not exceeded and overfishing of the red snapper stock does not occur in 2020.  Implementing the calibrated [annual catch limits] in 2020 will also help assure that this final rule is consistent the [sic] Magnuson-Stevens Act.  [emphasis added]”

Prior to the June Gulf Council meeting, NMFS did provide at least preliminary figures indicating appropriate changes in red snapper allocations to all states other than Texas.  However, there is no indication that any of the states currently intend to amend their red snapper regulations to accord with the revised allocations, and NMFS has taken no action to memorialize the revised allocations in a regulation.

Instead, in a recent letter to the Ocean Conservancy, Dr. Roy Crabtree, the Southeast Regional Administrator, replied that

“…NOAA Fisheries agrees that sound quota monitoring is critical to the success of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s (Council) state management program for private anglers, and believes this issue is best addressed through the Council process.  The Council was scheduled to discuss this topic at its April 2020 meeting, which was cancelled due to concerns about the COVID-19 virus.  However, the Council will be meeting from June 15 to June 18, 2020, via a webinar and this topic is scheduled for discussion during the Reef Fish Committee session, which convenes on June 16, 2020.”

The Gulf Council did take up the matter on that date, but in a close vote decided to take no action in time to impact the 2020 recreational red snapper season.  

If NMFS takes no further action, it may find itself in a situation where it knowingly allowed recreational private boat red snapper anglers to exceed their 2020 harvest limit, paving the way for problems in 2021, when revised allocation figures will, hopefully, be in place.

The Ocean Conservancy responded to the Gulf Council’s failure to act by issuing a statement which said

“Today, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council further delayed action necessary to ensure that the private recreational sector of the red snapper fishery stays within its sustainable, science-based annual catch limit.  As a result, recreational fishing in the 2020 season will almost certainly exceed sustainable limits.  This puts the entire fishery, including the commercial and for-hire sectors, at higher risk for future reductions in catch levels.

“Ocean Conservancy supports state management of red snapper, but implementation of this new system has been plagued by accountability issues.  Inconsistent catch monitoring systems across the five states prevents a clear picture as to whether science-based catch limits are being met…Currently, each Gulf state is surveying angler catch using different methodologies, making it difficult to know just how much fishing for red snapper is actually occurring across the Gulf.  This approach is statistically indefensible.  Essentially, rather than comparing apples to apples, we have a data fruit salad.

“…Over the course of 2020, the Council will be moving forward with efforts to find ways to calibrate state catch data in order to establish a ‘common currency’ that allows for more accurate and allowable reporting against the private recreational sector’s annual catch limit.  We encourage the Council to finalize this work with all haste, as management of red snapper without a common currency or other management measures to prevent overages violates the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

“…The stakes are high.  The private recreational sector has simply caught too many fish over the last several years, and failure to rein in this fishing is putting the health of the fish population at risk.    Commercial and for-hire fishermen, who have been fishing sustainably for years, may pay the price in reduced quotas and access because of the lack of accountability for private anglers.  The Council is putting decades of hard work and sacrifice by fishermen to rebuild red snapper in jeopardy.”

So it appears that the cooperative state/federal red snapper approach, which has been hailed by groups such as the Center for Sportfishing Policy as

“a proven model that could be applied to other fisheries to other fisheries to improve public access while ensuring proper conservation of America’s marine resources,”

still has a few bugs in it.

As it stands to today, it is not “a proven model,” but still in its prototype stage.  Nor is it “ensuring proper conservation of America’s marine resources,” for in its current state, it is setting the stage for further overfishing by the private boat recreational sector.

Yes, those are problems that can be fairly easily fixed, provided that the members of the Gulf Council have the requisite political will, and further providing that the states, most particularly including Texas, are willing to get their recreational landings data into a form that is both accurate and usable on a regional basis.

Hopefully, that will happen sometime this year.

But given the seemingly intransigent problems that have allowed the private recreational sector to continually kill to many red snapper, at this point, the only thing I can say is that I’ll believe it when I finally see it, and not a moment before.