FEDERAL INACTION THREATENS GULF AMBERJACK FISHERY

 

It can often appear that there are a lot of amberjack in the Gulf of Mexico, but appearances can be deceiving.

The Gulf stock of greater amberjack was found to be overfished more than two decades ago, but subsequent management plans have proven ineffective; despite over twenty years of rebuilding efforts, the stock’s status has not changed.  After the most recent stock assessment, SEDAR 70, was completed in late 2020; it found that the stock remained overfished

In response to SEDAR 70’s findings, what was then known as the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (since renamed as simply the Gulf Fishery Management Council), and ultimately the National Marine Fisheries Service, developed management measures that reduced the overfishing limit from 2,167,000 pounds to 2,033,000 pounds and, in a much more significant move that recognized the high degree of scientific uncertainty as to why the stock had not rebuilt, reduced the acceptable biological catch from 1,794,000 pounds to just 505,000 pounds.

Since the same management action that reduced the overfishing limit and acceptable biological catch also changed the former allocation of the Gulf amberjack resource, so that 20 percent of the Gulf amberjack harvest is now allocated to the commercial fishery and 80 percent to the recreational sector, the annual commercial catch limit fell from 484,380 pounds to only 110,000—more than a 75 percent decrease—while the annual recreational catch limit fell from 1,309,620 pounds to 404,000.

The annual catch limits were then modified to account for management uncertainty, leading to an annual commercial catch target of 93,930 pounds and an annual recreational catch target of 335,320 pounds.

Unfortunately, it is much easier to lower an annual catch limit or annual catch target on paper than it is to make fishermen—particularly recreational fishermen—adhere to whatever new limits might be established.  Thus, it turned out that, in the 2024-2025 recreational fishing season, anglers landed an estimated 882,451 pounds of Gulf amberjack, a total that was 218 percent of the annual sector catch limit and 263 percent of the annual sector catch target, more than doubling the amount that the recreational sector was entitled to under the management plan.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires that the regional fisheries management councils, when drafting fishery management plans and other management measures,

“establish a mechanism for specifying annual catch limits in the plan (including a multiyear plan), implementing regulations, or annual specifications, at a level such that overfishing does not occur in the fishery, including measures to ensure accountability.”

Gulf amberjack are managed pursuant to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources in the Gulf of Mexico and, as stated in the most recent Framework Action relevant to the Gulf amberjack fishery, dated November 2023,

“Currently, the commercial and recreational sectors have [annual catch targets] set at 7% and 17% below their respective [annual catch limits].  Both sectors have an in-season accountability measure (AM) such that when either sector’s landings reach or are projected to reach its [annual catch target], that sector is closed to harvest for the remainder of the fishing year.  If either sector’s landings exceed it’s [annual catch limit], then in the following fishing year, a post-season AM overage adjustment (“payback”) is applied that reduces that sector’s [annual catch limit] in the following fishing year by the amount of the overage in the previous fishing year and adjusts the [annual catch target] accordingly.”

In the last fishing year, regulators failed to shut down the season as soon as anglers exceeded their annual catch target, and the result was that the recreational sector landed 882,451 pounds of Gulf amberjack, exceeding their 404,000 pound annual catch limit by 478,451 pounds.  When that overage is deducted from the 2025-2026 season’s 404,000 annual catch limit, as the relevant accountability measure requires, we end up with an annual catch limit for the current 2025 season of -74,451 pounds—a negative number that means that anglers had already exceeded the annual catch target for 2025—ans well as the annual catch limit—before the season ever opened.

The expectation was that the National Marine Fisheries Service would make an announcement closing the 2025-2026 season before it ever opened.

But that never happened.

NMFS just stayed silent.  And because of that, recreational fishermen in the Gulf found themselves in a position not too different from the compulsive gambler who, while trying to pay off his debts, ended up falling prey to a loan shark who encouraged the gambler to indulge his vice while steadily running up additional obligations.

Gulf anglers opened the 2025 season already in debt to NMFS, owing the agency 74,451 pounds of amberjack even before the first line went into the water.  But when the amberjack season opened, those anglers went fishing anyway, and every amberjack that they retain only increases the amount of fish that they owe under the accountability rules.

Last season, Gulf anglers caught 870,851 pounds of amberjack by October 31.  If NMFS doesn’t close the season early this year, and recreational landings are the same as they were last year, when the 2026 season begins, the recreational sector will have to pay back not just the 74,451 pounds of amberjack that will have carried over from this year’s season, but a total of 541,302 pounds—the 74,451-pound carryover, plus a  additional 466,851 pound overage from the 2025-2026 season.

Thus the growing carryover serves as a sort of compound interest that will seriously erode the amount of amberjack available to anglers, making none available in 2026 and requiring that137,302 pounds be deducted from its 335,320 pound catch target in 2027—meaning that the 2027 season would have to close after only 198,018 pounds of Gulf amberjack were landed.

And that assumes that, if NMFS fails to enforce the accountability measures in 2025, it will do any better in 2026, 2027, or 2028.  It’s not at all unlikely that, if the agency fails to honor its obligations under the management plan in 2025, it will fail to honor its obligations under the management plan in subsequent years as well, and just let anglers’ debt to the agency and to the resource continue to grow, until another administration, at some point in the future, will have more respect for the fisheries management and regulatory processes and finally enforce the management plan's terms.

And by then, with years of overages compounding the payback, the debt might be so large that the anglers won’t only have NMFS to pay, but Hell to pay as well.

The delays—and the source of the problem—isn’t originating at the Gulf Fishery Management Council.  Prior to the scheduled season opener of September 1,Council staff had sent messages to stakeholders saying things like

“We haven’t gotten a closure notice from NOAA so, the season has defaulted to OPEN for now.  We will let you know if we hear anything different.”

And

“The Council wants to make anglers aware of the current uncertainty surrounding the 2025 recreational greater amberjack fishing season.  The season is scheduled to open September 1 through October 31, 2025.  However, landings data from the last year show that recreational harvest exceeded the annual catch limit.  Under existing accountability measures, the overage would automatically trigger a reduction in this year’s annual catch limit and annual catch target, resulting in the season being closed.  To date, no formal announcement on the 2025 fishing season has been made by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Department of Commerce.  We recognize that the situation, and the uncertainty it creates, is far from ideal for anglers, businesses, and coastal communities.  The Council is committed to keeping the public informed and will share updates as soon as we learn more.”

Apart from Council staff, the Council members themselves are concerned about the implications of the government’s failure to close the 2025 recreational amberjack season.  On September 3, the Council sent a letter to Eugenio Pineiro Soler, the current head of NMFS, that read, in part,

“At its August 2025 meeting, the Gulf Council (Council) discussed the opening date for the recreational season for amberjack in the Gulf of America, which typically opens on September 1 and closes on October 31.  However, 2024 recreational landings data indicated that the recreational annual catch target (ACT) and annual catch limit (ACL) were exceeded in that year…

“NOAA Fisheries estimated that the 2024 recreational landings of greater amberjack were 877,334 pounds or 217% or the recreational ACL…this overage automatically triggers a reduction in the 2025 recreational ACT and ACL which, based on the aforementioned 2024 overage, results in a complete recreational fishing closure in 2025.  To date, no clarity has been provided to the public regarding the coverage and effect on the 2025 recreational season which, in the absence of action by NOAA Fisheries, opened on September 1, 2025.  At the August 2025 Council meeting, NOAA Fisheries staff from the Southeast Regional Office indicated that a closure notice was prepared and sent to NOAA headquarters some time ago, and that closure notice remains under review.

“The Council is concerned about annually exceeding the ACL for greater amberjack as it is currently in an overfished status with a long-term rebuilding plan.  Therefore, the Council is troubled about NOAA Fisheries’ lack of compliance with the greater amberjack accountability measures defined in  the codified federal regulations and respectfully requests an explanation.  Additionally, the Council requests an explanation for the delayed rulemaking, a timeline for implementation, and a plan for ensuring compliance in the future.  Accountability measures are designed in part to correct quantifiable imbalances in realized catch against defined catch limits, with the purpose of ensuring the continued sustainability of a fish stock or complex.  If accountability measures are not implemented as prescribed in the codified federal regulations, then it is possible that the continued sustainability of a fish stock or complex would be jeopardized.  Further, a lack of enforcement of these accountability measures erodes public confidence in the federal fisheries management system…”

The motion to send the letter to the NMFS chief passed without opposition, although one person present at the meeting observed that some Council members, including more than one state fisheries director, appear to have “felt called out by the motion.”

So the delay clearly isn’t being caused by the Council or by NMFS’ Southeast Regional Office, and there are real indications that it isn’t being caused anywhere within the National Marine Fisheries Service.  

There are reliable rumors that the decision to ignore the clear mandates of the fishery management plan, which require accountability measures to be enforced when the annual catch target and/or annual catch limit has been exceeded, “is 100% political,” and was made at either the highest levels of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or perhaps within NOAA’s parent agency, the Department of Commerce, in order to “create fishing opportunities.”

If those rumors are true—and in my view, they probably are—we can be sure that neither NOAA nor Commerce decided to impose the delay on their own. Rather, the decision to ignore the clear mandates of the fishery management plan undoubtedly came at the instigation of the recreational fishing industry—most likely the fishing tackle and/or recreational boating industries, as the folks who own and operate the for-hire vessels are concerned about the impacts of continued overfishing on both the health of the amberjack stock and on their businesses—and of “anglers’ rights” organizations who aggressively promote free “access” to marine resources regardless of the impact such continued harvest has on the long-term sustainability of fish stocks. 

Tackle industry, boating industry, and anglers’ rights organizationshave also made significant contributions to the political campaigns of federallegislators, particularly legislators from the Gulf region.  

It is not hard to imagine such legislators contacting the Commerce Department and/or NOAA, and insisting that the agencies abrogate their responsibilities to maintain healthy and sustainable fish stocks, and instead violate the strictures of federal law and ignore their obligations under the relevant fishery management plan.

It’s a distressing situation because, although such pollical pressure is currently focused on the Gulf and elsewhere in the southeast, it is unlikely to remain limited to that theater.  

Instead, we are likely to see political decisions override good science and well-thought-out management plans, in order to increase short-term exploitation of vulnerable fish stocks, and leave little for following generations to enjoy.