Red snapper sparks debate in the Gulf of Mexico

A red snapper being prepared for eating

August 21, 1999
Web posted at: 2:38 p.m. EDT (1838 GMT)

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama (CNN) -- Out in the Gulf of Mexico, red snapper season is about to come to an end.

Federal regulations close down the season for recreational fishermen on August 29. That makes charter boat operators -- who ferry the fishermen out to sea for a chance at bringing home the popular fish -- unhappy.

"About 99 percent of our business is based on the red snapper catch here," says charter owner Randy Boggs, "and when they close the season down, it pretty much shuts our business off."

That's the idea, conservationists say. A decade ago, the red snapper was severely over-fished, prompting the National Marine Fisheries Service to institute a shorter season and size and bag limits.

The measures have helped the snapper rebound -- and now fishermen and the boat owners say it's time to lift the restrictions.

Not so fast, says the government. It argues that easing restrictions too hastily could undo the benefit snappers have gained.

"Well, the harvest has increased, the number of fishing trips has increased," said Andy Rosenberg, deputy director of the NMFS. "But we want to make sure that we don't undermine the whole recovery."

The boat owners and fishermen scoff at such conservatism. The problem, they say, isn't with recreational fishers, but with what's called the shrimp industry's "bycatch" -- other sea dwellers caught in the nets of shrimpers.

"We have pretty good evidence to support this, that the largest source of mortality for red snapper occurs independent of the directive fishery," says Jim Cowan, fisheries oceanographer at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. "It actually occurs via the shrimp fishery as part of their bycatch."

NMFS is aware of the bycatch problem too, and has imposed rules requiring shrimp fishermen to install what's called "bycatch reduction devices" to their nets. They create an opening in the top of the net that allows fish like the red snapper to escape.

But the shrimp fishermen say the BRDs are costly, and the rule makes them a scapegoat for mismanagement of the red snapper. And some of the fishermen agree: The federal rules are unfair, they complain, because charter boats are not effectively monitored.

And so, the use of BRDs -- several different types and their effectiveness -- is also under review.

That leaves everyone looking for a compromise in the red snapper debate, looking for a way to preserve the resource and give everyone involved something of what they want.

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