The new U.S. Department of Commerce regulation on red snapper harvest is expected to cut the amount of fish that Alabama’s red snapper fishermen are allowed to harvest during Alabama’s red snapper season. U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville expressed his concerns about the new regulation on Monday. The Department of Commerce’s new rule requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to convert all fisheries into a single federal system. Tuberville said that this will have negative implications for Alabama’s red snapper industry.
“Once again, the Biden administration is trying to force its one-size-fits-all approach and ignore the adverse effects of its decisions,” said Senator Tuberville. “Red snapper fishing is a huge part of Alabama’s Gulf Coast economy, which is why I’ll continue pushing back against the Department of Commerce’s disastrous proposal to decrease limits for red snapper anglers based on inaccurate data.”
Last August, Tuberville joined his congressional colleagues in urging Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to reverse the department’s proposed rule to undo the National Marine Fisheries Service’s standard of setting quotas and annual catch data on a state-by-state basis. Instead, the department proceeded with its rule to implement a standardized catch limit in all states, even Alabama, with fishery programs certified by the National Marine Fisheries Service. This rule is expected to severely cut Alabama’s red snapper catch limits for 2023 by 51 percent, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR).
In 2021, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council decided to delay the calibration of red snapper allocation until January 2023 and approve a moderate increase in the 2021 annual catch limit rejecting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) attempts to cut Alabama’s red snapper season in half.
Under a final rule published by NOAA Fisheries on December 1, Alabama’s private recreational anglers will see a 51% decrease in the 2023 red snapper quota. The rule went into effect on January 1, reducing Alabama’s private recreational quota from 1,122,662 pounds in 2022 to just 558,200 pounds in 2023.
Critics of the new federal regulation claim that there are three times as many red snapper in the Gulf than previously estimated.
Scott Bannon is the Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
“Each Gulf state is accounting for their recreational harvests using different data programs from what the federal government is using,” Bannon stated. “Under the other final rule that created state management of red snapper in 2018, there was a requirement to align the landings into the same currency through a calibration method. Alabama and Mississippi have very accurate reporting systems, and we feel the harvest estimates from NOAA are inflated and unreasonable.
“Since before state management of red snapper was initiated, we have pushed the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Gulf Council) that we should manage the amount of fish off each state. From Alabama’s perspective, this is in part due to the investments made by the state and private individuals in artificial reef building from which a significant number of red snapper and other reef species are produced in Alabama’s reef zones.”
Bannon points to Alabama’s investments in creating artificial reefs to provide habitat for the snapper and other reef fish as one reason Alabama’s quota should be higher.
Federal regulation of the red snapper season has been a point of contention with state officials for years. Federal authorities are essentially ignoring years of data that state wildlife managers have collected on red snapper numbers.
The new rules mean that red snapper fishermen will be able to spend fewer days on the water pursuing the fish this year and that while doing so, they will be allowed to keep fewer fish. Fishermen who customarily fill their freezers with red snapper for their family’s protein needs will have to pursue a different fish species this year and be prepared for this dramatic change in their fishing habits and strategy.
Alabama Today will continue to follow this story and have more details when the 2023 red snapper season rules are finalized.
Tommy Tuberville has represented Alabama in the United States Senate since 2021. Tuberville unseated incumbent Sen. Doug Jones in the 2020 election.
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