Why It Matters: Despite the highest abundance of red snapper anyone has ever seen in the South Atlantic, the season was only one day in 2024. Compounding the nonsensical state of red snapper management in the region, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) settled a lawsuit in 2024 brought by commercial fishermen that required an end to red snapper overfishing by June of 2025. In response, NMFS proposed an amendment earlier this year based on a new updated stock assessment that found the population is no longer overfished and overfishing is not occurring. However, the proposed amendment goes well beyond the lawsuit settlement requirement, including proposing a large area closure to all bottom fishing for three months in northeast Florida.
Highlights:
- The National Marine Fisheries Service released a proposed Secretarial Amendment for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan (FMP) in the South Atlantic that recognizes the red snapper population is in better shape than previously described.
- Unfortunately, if passed as written, the proposed amendment would unnecessarily eliminate recreational fishing opportunities for anglers, charter boats, and head boats for three months in northeast Florida.
The 2024 red snapper season in the South Atlantic lasted a total of one day, despite having the highest abundance of red snapper anyone has ever seen. Aside from an inefficient commercial management model being applied to the recreational sector, the short red snapper season is an artifact of NMFS’s Marine Recreational Information Program’s (MRIP) inability to estimate recreational dead discards, or fish that are thrown back and assumed to die when the season is closed the rest of the year. Many of the released fish survive, but a percentage are estimated to die and are counted towards the total available removals (annual catch limit, also known as the ACL) from the population each year. However, even with the high MRIP-based estimates of discards, the South Atlantic red snapper population continues to grow more rapidly than projected. The math simply did not add up.
Still, the red snapper population has been considered overfished and undergoing overfishing for more than a decade and is currently under a rebuilding plan. Recently, a U.S. District Judge signed a settlement agreement between NMFS and plaintiffs from the commercial fishing industry to end overfishing of red snapper in the South Atlantic by June of 2025. As a result, NMFS is proposing a rare Secretarial amendment (as opposed to a normal Council-led amendment) to the Snapper-Grouper FMP.
Parts of the amendment (Amendment 59) provided welcome news that validates previous South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) positions and angler observations on the water. An updated stock assessment between last year’s lawsuit settlement and the release of proposed Amendment 59 earlier this year found that South Atlantic red snapper are no longer overfished. The Amendment contains an action that would also reset the estimate for the rate of removals that is considered overfishing, meeting the settlement agreement mandate to end overfishing.
Last Wednesday, following the adjournment of the Council’s public testimony portion of the meeting, NMFS hosted the final public hearing on proposed Amendment 59. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation’s (CSF) Senior Director, Fisheries Policy Chris Horton testified in support of resetting the fishing mortality rate estimate that ends overfishing and more accurately reflects the continued population growth at the current rate of recreational fishing. However, CSF does not support many other proposed actions in the amendment, including closing all bottom fishing in a large area of northeast Florida for several months.
Public comments on Amendment 59 are being accepted until March 17th. Anglers in the South Atlantic are encourage to submit their thoughts on the amendment here.
