Why It Matters: For over a decade, South Atlantic red snapper anglers have been trapped in a management system that routinely relies on federal recreational catch data that consistently misses even the National Marine Fisheries Service’s mark for useable data. This year, a state-led effort to collect more accurate and timely catch information through exempted fishing permits (EFPs) offered a path toward better science and better management. Instead, a last-minute court ruling halted the season just hours before anglers were set to leave the dock last month, delaying the transition to a much better data-driven fishery management system that is more accountable to both anglers and the fishery.
Highlights
- While a federal court injunction has paused South Atlantic red snapper EFP fishing opportunities designed to collect valuable catch and discard data, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) and the recreational fishing community are optimistic that the inertia to implement a better management system will eventually lead to meaningful seasons.
- The state EFP programs were designed to generate more accurate recreational fisheries data and help overcome longstanding limitations of the federal Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP).
- Just as the Gulf states broke out of their unnecessary regulatory constraints nearly a decade ago using their own data, the EFP programs of the South Atlantic states will similarly help overcome the longstanding limitations of ill-informed federal management of red snapper.
On May 21, only hours before Florida anglers were set to leave the docks and participate in a historic effort to improve red snapper management, a federal court injunction halted the previously approved South Atlantic red snapper exempted fishing permits (EFPs). The season would have provided the first large-scale opportunity in decades to collect reliable catch and discard information directly from participating anglers across the region. Instead, boats remain tied to the dock, and a promising step toward modernizing fisheries management has been temporarily put on hold.
Hopefully, history will repeat itself. Prior to 2017, Gulf red snapper anglers faced a similar reality. Despite widespread empirical and anecdotal observations of increasing red snapper abundance, federal seasons continued to shrink as managers relied on a federal recreational data system that struggled to accurately characterize the recreational fishery. The disconnect between what anglers were seeing on the water and what management measures allowed created growing frustration and eroded confidence in the federal system of management.
Recognizing the need for better information, Gulf states developed recreational data collection programs that ultimately provided more timely and accurate estimates of harvest. While those state programs were not initially designed as a coordinated regional system, they demonstrated that alternative approaches could work. In 2017, then-Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross helped break the cycle by extending federal seasons and allowing states to prove they could successfully collect the data needed to inform management. Since that pivot to state-led management, the Gulf states have enjoyed seasons measured in months, not days.
The South Atlantic EFPs are designed to follow a similar path. In fact, Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas began with a coordinated plan to collect standardized data across the region from the outset, a vast improvement over the initial Gulf process. By generating more accurate and timely catch information than is currently available through MRIP, the state programs will improve stock assessments, reduce uncertainty, and create management measures that more closely match conditions on the water.
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) has been pushing for the transition to state-led red snapper management in the South Atlantic since 2020, and CSF will continue to work with the recreational fishing community and state and federal agencies to ensure that happens. It is the only solution to decades of mismanagement.