Why It Matters: Despite the highest abundance of red snapper anyone has ever seen in the South Atlantic, the most recent stock assessments still consider the popular recreational and commercial fish “overfished and undergoing overfishing”. Because the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (South Atlantic Council) has not taken drastic action to end overfishing as defined by statistical models, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) will be stepping in, and on, the South Atlantic Council with a Secretarial Amendment that could have significant implications for fishing opportunities for not just red snapper, but all reef fish species in the South Atlantic. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) is offering more than ample reasons why a Secretarial Amendment at this juncture is inappropriate.
Highlights:
- The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced in early October that they would pursue a Secretarial Amendment to end “overfishing” of red snapper in the South Atlantic region prior to the 2025 recreational and commercial fishing seasons.
- This action stems from a court order following a settlement agreement between NMFS and a group of commercial fishermen who filed a lawsuit on the grounds that NMFS was not doing enough to limit recreational effort and discards.
- NMFS is currently soliciting comments through the federal register until November 8 as they begin to develop a draft environmental impact statement for the pending amendment.
Recently, a U.S. District Judge signed a settlement agreement between NMFS and plaintiffs from commercial fishing interests that NMFS would file a final Secretarial Amendment by June 6, 2025, to end overfishing of red snapper in the South Atlantic. Even though red snapper recruitment and rebuilding has exceeded all levels of expectation under current management, the NMFS has previously indicated that they would pursue a secretarial amendment if the South Atlantic Council did not take drastic measures, like closures to all bottom fishing.
Red snapper management in the South Atlantic is the latest posterchild in the failings of the current federal fisheries management system. The antiquated, biomass-based management approach that assumes there is a direct, proportional relationship between the number of young fish entering the population and the number of older, egg-producing females does not fit for this species. Red snapper recruitment has been around two times, or more, the long-term average in recent years despite the low numbers of older and larger fish, which is the inverse of the theoretical stock-recruit relationship. If this model were correct, abundance would be declining – not increasing.
Furthermore, the “overfishing” determination relies on the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) estimate for angler harvest and discards. As CSF reported previously, NMFS announced last year that they would be conducting a pilot study in 2024 to determine how they can correct a known bias in the MRIP survey that is causing recreational harvest and discard estimates to be 30-40% higher than reality. On top of that, the red snapper MRIP data for the four South Atlantic states has only met MRIP’s own standards 17% of the time over the last three years.
Finally, red snapper management in the South Atlantic is built on a model that constrains harvest to allow the population to reach a biomass target of older fish that is considered “rebuilt”. That rebuilt target is derived from what NMFS assumes the population looked like in the 1950’s, even though we have little or no data on red snapper from that time period.
Fortunately, the South Atlantic Red Snapper Research Program, which is a fishery-independent absolute abundance study using cutting edge technologies, is underway and expected to be completed next year. The results will give us new insights as to the true status of the population and allow for better management moving forward.
With a lot of new information coming soon, and the fact the red snapper population abundance continues to rebuild despite the “overfishing” status on paper, a NFMS circumvention of the South Atlantic Council’s authority using a Secretarial Amendment is unwarranted.
However, NMFS has begun the process of preparing the Secretarial Amendment, and public comments on the amendment and what it should include or consider are due this Friday, November 8. Anyone interested in joining CSF in submitting comments can click here.
