Sport fishermen, angry over strict limits to the recreational red-snapper catch, are organizing protests along the Gulf of Mexico for June 4. The anglers say the three-day recreational snapper season set by the federal government is cripplingly short and the source of lost business for local marinas and tackle shops.
“Federal regulators have said they set the strict limit this year because private anglers are expected to take 81 percent of their 3-million-pound (1.3-million-kilogram) quota out of state waters, where seasons range from 66 days off Alabama to year-round off Texas. That leaves relatively few fish to be caught farther offshore in federal waters,” says The Seattle Times. “Critics of the rule say federal scientists who claim that red snapper need protections fail to take into account fish that live on artificial reefs constructed by Alabama and other states.”
“This has a chance to be absolutely huge because the rec fishermen outnumber the charter [commercial fishermen] guys 20-to-1,” said Mayor Tony Kennon of Orange Beach, Alabama, himself a recreational angler.
While anglers are only allotted three days to fish, starting June 1, commercial fishermen have a 49-day season.
To learn more about the red-snapper kerfuffle, read “The Gulf War,” a FERN original story by Barry Yeoman, co-produced with Texas Monthly.