DEFENDING POOR DECISIONS: GULF OF MEXICO RED SNAPPER

 

Recreational red snapper management in the Gulf of Mexico may be one of the clearest examples of what happens when values conflict, and the precautionary approach of federal fisheries managers attempting to fully rebuild the stock clash with the more permissive philosophy of state managers trying to satisfy the fishing tackle and boating industries as well as “anglers’ rights” advocates, which seek to maximize harvest even if it harms the long-term health of the stock.

Currently, the membership of the most relevant management body, the Gulf Fishery Management Council, is slanted toward the recreational industry, resulting in management actions that favor exploitation over conservation.

As a result, there are signs that the Gulf’s red snapper population may be suffering from excessive recreational fishing pressure, as anglers and charter boat operators see the average size of the red snapper they catch decline, and find it necessary to run farther and farther from port to locate quality fish.  I’ve written about this trend before, and how party and charter boat captains in the eastern Gulf have grown concerned that overly liberal regulations, and in particular overly long seasons, may be doing harm to the red snapper stock.  My most recent essay on the subject, published early last month, was titled “Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper:  Are States Setting Themselves Up to Fail?”

Now, it looks like some states are asking themselves the same question.  But instead of taking a long look at the management actions they’ve taken, and asking themselves whether they might have gone too far too fast when lengthening seasons, they’re digging in and defending past decisions, even in light of strong indications that they’re on the wrong course.

Alabama provides a good example.

The first comments came not from the state, but in an article written by an ally of the industry and anglers’ rights groups.  Titled “Alabama Red Snapper Population Booms to 7M:  Best In a Decade,” it appeared on Wired2Fish.com,

“Finally, there’s solid proof that Gulf red snapper populations are in superb shape, with 7 million fish found along just the 50-mile-wide Alabama coastline.  This is precisely what many Southern marine anglers, guides, and charter captains have been yelling to anyone who would listen for over a decade.

“Research scientists at the University of South Alabama’s Marine Sciences school have proven that red snapper populations are the healthiest they’ve been in at least 14 years…

“Much the same healthy snapper populations are touted in Gulf waters off Florida’s Panhandle, and off Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas…

“Ted Venker, Vice President of the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), says federal fisheries managers governing snapper at the federal National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have been at odds with anglers and state and regional fisheries managers for years.

“They have gone back and forth in opposing positions with the federal Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and state agencies regarding red snapper stock assessments that dictate snapper limits and seasons for fishermen.

“’Like a good federal government agency, NOAA Fisheries [NMFS] believes its data is the only right data,’ says Venker.  ‘Rather than continue to insist that it is always the smartest entity in the room, NOAA Fisheries should work on being a better partner to the Gulf states as well as the angling public, before cramming down damaging, punitive measure[s].’”

As is so typical of such intentionally slanted articles, the Wired2Fish piece leaves much unsaid.  Most notable is that it never mentioned that Gulf red snapper were severely overfished during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s,  and were still found to be overfished as recently as 2014; while the 2018 red snapper stock assessment found that the stock was no longer overfished, that was only because the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council moved the goalposts, and reduced the level of spawning stock biomass needed for a “not overfished” finding.  So, the 2018 assessment stated that

“An important caveat to this result [that the stock is no longer overfished] is that under the previous definition of [Minimum Stock Size Threshold] the red snapper resource would still be considered to be overfished.”

Thus, the fact that “red snapper populations are the healthiest they’ve been in at least 14 years” is hardly remarkable; the stock has been subject to a so-far successful rebuilding plan and, thanks to the very “damaging, punitive measure[s] that the CCA’s Venker condemned, as well as to the federal fisheries managers that he criticized, there are definitely more red snapper in the Gulf than there were a decade ago.

But the decline in fish size is a signal that the recovery might stall, although state fishery managers are still doing their best to ignore the red flags.

That was made clear in a second article, this one appearing in Outdoor Alabama, the publication of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which declared that the “Start of Alabama Red Snapper Season Confirms Abundance.”

The Outdoor Alabama piece began by celebrating the number of red snapper caught by local anglers, who had managed to land 135,193 pounds of fish—about one-fifth of the state’s 2025 quota—by June 1.  It also heralded the findings of the University of South Alabama study, and quoted Dr. Sean Powers, the Director of the University’s School of Marine and Environmental Sciences, who said,

“The trend in both surveys indicates a higher number of red snapper since the surveys began, [one] in 1998 and [the other, using a remotely operated vehicle to photograph the life on bottom structure] in 2011.”

But, once again, that is what one would expect to see once a badly overfished stock begins to respond to a rebuilding plan.

Dr. Powers then addressed the shrinking fish size, finishing with a surprising comment:

“During the last five or six years, we’ve seen the average size of red snapper decrease.  We believe that is because of fishing pressure.  But we have tons of new fish coming in every year.  It may very well be that, without the large snapper on the reef, it makes more room for the small snapper…”

And maybe it does, but that doesn’t mean that the more abundant small snapper take the place of the big ones, particularly when it comes to maintaining the health of the stock.

Red snapper are one of those fish that engage in “batch spawning,” producing eggs on multiple occasions during the year instead of in a single spawning event.  And there is little question that larger red snapper produce more eggs, both on an absolute and on a proportionate basis, than do the smaller ones.  A paper published in 2022 by Nancy J. Brown-Peterson and Anna K. Millender, titled "The Reproductive Biology of Red Snapper in Mississippi Waters,” reported finding as few as 596 eggs in a female red snapper that was 376 millimeters (14.8 inches) long, and as many as 349,754 eggs in a 568 mm (22.4 inch) individual.  The paper goes on to state that

“Batch fecundity [the number of eggs produced in a single spawning event] is significantly, positively correlated with fish length…There was a significant difference in [batch fecundity] by age…with [batch fecundity] generally higher in fish > 4 years.”

Such finding raises the question of how many of the allegedly abundant “small snapper” it takes to replace each missing “large snapper,” from the standpoint of maintaining recruitment levels and best ensuring the long-term health of the stock.  For, apparently, a lot of large snapper are missing, as Dr. Powers observed that

“The other thing we can calculate in our surveys is the weight of all the snapper around the artificial reef.  If you look at the total weight number, it’s about the same over the past five years.  But instead of having big, medium and small snapper, we now have small and medium snapper.”

Which is just what the concerned anglers and charter boat operators are observing.  But Dr. Powers doesn’t seem as concerned as they are over the loss of the larger snapper, perhaps because Alabama has decided to side with the tackle industry and anglers’ rights groups, rather than with the federal managers who are rebuilding the fishery.

Outdoor Alabama reported that

“Powers said that people have asked him what’s wrong with the red snapper fishing because they are discarding more fish because the average size is lower.  However, Powers said a significant change would have to be made the season length [sic] to change the population dynamics.

“’If they want to go back to where the average size is 10 pounds, then we have to go back to nine-day seasons,’ he said.  ‘Those big fish are still out there, but it’s not as easy to catch one.  I am confident that everybody can go out there and get their two 16-inch (minimum size) snapper relatively easily.  For really big snapper, you have to target them.  You have to have better sites that aren’t fished that much, and you have to be a fisherman again.’”

It’s clear from that statement that Alabama is intentionally shaping the red snapper stock to be composed primarily of smaller fish, that provide the highest possible landings for the short-term benefit of anglers and angling-related businesses, while ignoring the benefits that older, larger females convey to the population, what another 2022 paper, “Modeling fecundity at age in Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper to help evaluate the best measure of reproductive potential,” calls

“a general acceptance that BOFFFFs, i.e., Big Old Fat Fecund Female Fish are essential for the successful maintenance of long-term fish populations.”

Dr. Powell sets forth the Alabama position very clearly.

“[E]verything is a balance.  If you want a snapper season that consistently lasts through the summer, then you’re going to have to accept that it’s going to be a little more difficult to catch a legal snapper.  You’re really going to have to be a skilled fisherman and do your research to catch a big snapper…

“We also know that some anglers want to catch fish of a certain size.  When we started state management, we knew we could manage for people to fish a lot or we could manage for big fish.  If you’re going to manage for big fish, that means a much shorter season.  We decided on a season where people could go as many days as possible when it’s convenient for them, and they’ll still be able to keep legal fish.”

Of course, whether they’ll still be able to keep legal fish—or, more accurately, whether they’ll still be able to find legal fish to keep—a few years from now is a question yet to be answered.