Why It Matters: The South Atlantic’s recreational red snapper fishery has long been hampered by uncertainty surrounding estimates of recreational catch, effort, and discards. Three new Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) applications from Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina offer an opportunity to address that challenge by pairing additional fishing opportunity in the month of October with enhanced, state-based data collection. If successful, these pilots could provide managers with more timely and reliable information needed to make sound, sustainable decisions about the fishery and help inform a long-term, state and federal cooperative management strategy.
Highlights:
- Three of the four South Atlantic states are proposing EFP pilot projects to test state-based approaches to recreational red snapper management while improving data on fishing effort, harvest, and discards.
- Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina will use similar approaches to test electronic and state-level reporting systems to improve the accuracy and timeliness of recreational fisheries data.
- Anglers can join the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation in supporting better fisheries management by submitting comments on the proposed EFPs at Regulations.gov by August 25, 2026.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has received new EFP applications from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to pilot state-based approaches to recreational red snapper management in 2026. As reported previously, an earlier attempt to provide appropriate red snapper angling opportunities while testing better data collection methodologies was stopped by a federal court.
The new proposals would provide red snapper fishing opportunities for the month of October, and possibly longer, while requiring enhanced data collection designed to improve estimates of recreational effort, catch, and discards. The ultimate goal of the EFPs is to establish state-led data collection programs that reduce data uncertainty and improve future management decisions.
Each state would test a similar approach to data collection. Florida will build on its existing State Reef Fish Survey (previously certified by NOAA Fisheries) while testing voluntary electronic reporting through a smartphone application. Georgia and South Carolina will use mandatory electronic reporting through the VESL app, requiring anglers to report catch information after each trip, and South Carolina anglers will need to obtain a red snapper harvest permit. In addition to the real time estimates of catch and harvest provided by anglers after each trip, the specific permit for red snapper fishing in South Carolina and the Florida State Reef Fish Survey permit for anglers targeting red snapper addresses another major shortfall of the federal recreational data catch program – the ability to identify how many anglers are actually fishing offshore for red snapper. Georgia is on track to implement a similar specific permit by 2027.
For recreational anglers, these EFPs represent an important opportunity to demonstrate that angler-provided data can lead to better management. More accurate and timely information on how, when, and where anglers catch and release red snapper can help reduce uncertainty and give managers greater confidence in maximizing season lengths and harvest limits. The states will evaluate the results of the 2026 pilots, with the outcomes intended to inform future EFPs and ultimately a longer-term state-led management approach.
Anglers who support improved data collection and greater certainty in South Atlantic red snapper management are encouraged to submit comments supporting the EFP applications by August 25, 2026.
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