Spanish Fort, Alabama -- 54 locals made 17 suggestions at a Jan. 9 RAP session with officials of Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.
But two of the suggestions appear to outweigh the importance of all others - change from federal to state fishery management and get an accurate count of red snapper.The public hearing produced a three-page document of problems and suggestions, mostly from recreational anglers and charter boat operators. The document will be presented to an official meeting of the 17-member council Feb. 3-4 in Houston.
One of the major suggestions cannot be done by the council itself but would take an act of Congress - switching from federal to state management of offshore fisheries. Emily Muehlstein (pronounced mule-stine ) of Tampa, the Fisheries Outreach Specialist, said the council cannot lobby for a switch from federal to state management, so locals would need to lobby their own U.S. Senators and Congressman. She circulated a contact sheet for the federal legislators.
But a second major suggestion, for a better count of red snapper, is within the council s authority. Under the present snapper count, restrictions continue to be made, including a daily limit of two snapper, size limits, and serious restriction on charter boats.
Several locals made reference to studies conducted by local fishery expert Dr. Bob Shipp which indicate that red snapper may be significantly more plentiful than the official studies followed by the council.
Shipp, head of the Marine Biology Department at the University of South Alabama, released a white paper on the Internet today which stated:
Snapper stocks may not be in an overfished state, but rather in a state of unrealized harvest potential due to a dramatic increase in available habitat during the last half- century.
He went on to explain that 20,000 artificial reefs have been placed off the Alabama coast in the past half-century. Those reefs are abundant growth areas for red snapper.New artificial reefs are not being counted in present red snapper statistics.
The council has already set the red snapper season for 2014, June 1 through July 10. In 2013, they had been able to supplement the regular season with a fall season.
Actions taken by the council will be reported on Facebook page Save the Mobile/Tensaw Delta on Feb. 6.
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