Why It Matters: With an estimated 3 million anglers fishing the Gulf of Mexico every year from all over the nation and the world, it is vitally important that popular recreational species like red snapper, gag grouper, and many others are effectively managed to ensure anglers have access to healthy fisheries. Collecting and using good data is imperative to good management, something the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) has struggled with in recent years. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) recently highlighted our latest concerns with recreational catch estimates for gag grouper while questioning the omission of the single most important data set for red snapper ever collected during the January Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting.
Highlights:
- In the Gulf of Mexico, there is currently a major difference between federal and state estimates of 2023 recreational gag grouper landings that could result in the complete closure of the gag grouper fishing season in 2024.
- The latest research track stock assessment for red snapper (SEDAR 74) failed to incorporate the absolute abundance data from the Great Red Snapper Count, the most comprehensive peer reviewed fishery-independent study ever completed.
During last week’s Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) Fishery Management Council (Council) meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, Council members heard from dozens of frustrated recreational anglers and their continued angst with how NOAA Fisheries counts the fish they land.
The latest debacle centers around gag grouper, and the fact the federal Marine Recreational Information Program (known as MRIP) estimated that recreational anglers landed 1.6 million pounds of gag grouper in about a month and a half in 2023. At the same time, the Florida State Reef Fish Survey, which covers the vast majority of gag grouper landings, estimated that only about 240,000 pounds of gag grouper were landed. Even though the Florida State Reef Fish Survey will be used for monitoring landings beginning in 2024, the MRIP estimate that far exceeds the 400,000 annual catch limit in 2023 could lead to a complete closure of gag grouper in Gulf waters in 2024.
“Like a lot of folks you are and will hear from today, we’re frustrated with the latest example of the inability of MRIP to meet the needs of federal fisheries management,” said CSF’s Senior Director of Fisheries Policy, Chris Horton, during public testimony. “It is a good survey for what it was originally designed to do but it was never intended for in-season management and never will be, regardless of how much money we throw at it. I provided testimony to Congress to that effect more than a decade ago, and here we still are. Replacing MRIP with state data collection programs is the only viable option for better data. We’re encouraged that the states and NOAA seem to be headed in that direction, but I’m concerned with the lack of urgency on NOAA’s part to find a resolution.”
NOAA acknowledged there were some potential weighting issues with a few of the angler intercepts and are expected to bring updated estimates to the April 2024 Council meeting.
Another update the Council received was on the status of the latest red snapper stock assessment. Horton had a few things to say about that as well. “We’re frustrated with the entire SEDAR 74 process. This red snapper research track assessment followed on the heels of the Great Red Snapper Count (GRSC); the most comprehensive fishery-independent study ever completed. It was the perfect opportunity to get red snapper modeling right. However, instead of using this $12 million dollar gift of a real absolute abundance estimate to build a new model that can estimate what is actually in the water, SEDAR 74 seems to have tried to simply increase the complexity of the same old thing that underestimates red snapper abundance by 300% and disregards the GRSC altogether. It is baffling to me that a science-based stock assessment would exclude the best data set we’ve ever had for red snapper.”
Fortunately, a motion was passed later in the meeting to direct the Council’s Science and Statistical Committee to include data from the GRSC in the frame of reference for the upcoming red snapper benchmark stock assessment. However, it remains to be seen when, how, or if this important data set will ultimately be used to benefit red snapper management.
