| In
Louisiana, marine fisheries are regulated by the state (out
to three nautical miles, nm) and by the federal government
within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ: from 3 to 200 nm).
Since red snapper are a relatively deep-water fish, nearly
all come from the federal waters off Louisiana. In nearly
every instance, Louisiana state regulations have mirrored
the federal ones.
The
recent actions in Texas and Florida to establish more liberal
red snapper regulations within their state waters has generated
a firestorm of controversy – in particular because
of those states’ 9 nm boundaries. Increasing the Texas
and Florida catches from their state waters has forced the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
(NOAA) Fisheries Service to cut the season in federal waters,
which basically results in snapper catches from central
Gulf states being appropriated by Texas and Florida. However
troubling these actions are, it should be noted that the
9 nm boundaries in Texas and Florida were created under
the conditions that existed when those states were admitted
to the Union.
The
Magnuson-Stevens Act
The
principle law governing fisheries in Federal waters is the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
(MSFCMA) of 1976. The original intent was to establish authority
over the EEZ to eliminate harvests by foreign fishing fleets.
While conservation of fish stocks was another goal, the
MSFCMA also provided for significant expansion of U.S. offshore
fishing capability. The result was, within 10 years, an
over-capacity in the domestic fleet similar to that previously
occurring from the foreign fleets.
The
MSFCMA also created a management structure based on regional
fishery management councils, with voting members that include
the state marine fisheries directors, individuals from each
state who are knowledgeable about fishing or conservation,
and the regional NOAA Fisheries director. The councils receive
advice from their appointed advisory panels and stock assessment
panels, and from scientific, statistical and management
committees. The councils are tasked with the production
of fishery management plans (FMPs) that must protect resources
while maintaining opportunities for commercial and recreational
harvests. Plan implementation is the responsibility of the
Secretary of Commerce, primarily via NOAA Fisheries Service.
Thus, the Fisheries Service is faced with the unenviable
task of applying the legal mandates of Congress (the MSFCMA)
and the Gulf of Mexico Council (the FMPs).
In 1996,
the MSFCMA was reauthorized by Congress as the Sustainable
Fisheries Act (SFA), with the addition of new, very specific
mandates that management must prevent overfishing, must
be based on the best scientific information available, must
be managed as a unit throughout their range to the extent
practicable, must include consideration of the importance
of fishing resources to fishing communities to minimize
adverse economic impacts, and must minimize bycatch. Ultimately,
the Gulf Council has a bit of leeway on the implementation
of these laws, but NOAA Fisheries has almost none.
The
SFA also requires that each FMP sets a level for when overfishing
is occurring and a plan for rebuilding overfished stocks
(overfishing must be stopped within two years and a plan
must be developed to rebuild overfished fisheries within
10 years). The SFA defines overfishing as excess removal
of fish and overfished as a biomass level that has declined
below the established threshold.
The
latest reauthorization of the MSFCMA in January 2007 included
major new mandates, including that FMPs must establish a
mechanism for setting annual catch limits that prevent overfishing.
Catch limits also must be in place by 2010 for every stock
currently overfished.
Beginning
Red Snapper Regulations
The
first Gulf reef fish (including red snapper) FMP was completed
in 1981, and described a declining fishery for red snapper.
A 13-inch minimum size limit was the first Gulf regulation,
in 1984. Since then, there have been more than 35 federal
management measures on red snapper in the Gulf.
In 1988,
the first red snapper stock assessment showed that the species
was both overfished and undergoing overfishing. That designation
required action from the Gulf Council and NOAA Fisheries
to recover the stock. The assessment concluded that fishing
mortality needed to be cut by 75 percent in order to recover
the species by 2000. The Gulf Council believed that the
impacts to fishers from a 75 percent cut would be too severe,
and opted for measures that would reduce harvest by 20 percent,
postponing additional restrictions for the future. Postponement
of major restrictions has also been possible because new
data on red snapper life history has been provided. Snapper
can live much longer (more than 50 years) than first thought,
so rebuilding schedules have been stretched out. At the
same time, it has been found the most important spawning
potential lies with the females that are older than about
15 years, and there are very few of these fish left. This
is why fishers can see so many red snapper out there (catch
restrictions have been working – there are lots of
young fish) and the population can still be in trouble (because
there are so few of the best, oldest spawners).
At least
one early action established a criterion that remains. FMP
Amendment 1 in 1990 set the recreational/commercial catch
allocation at 49 percent/ 51 percent based on 1979-1987
landings data This allocation ratio has not changed, although
the directed fishery has changed significantly over the
subsequent years.
The
1988 assessment also described the significant contribution
to total fishing mortality that comes from shrimp trawling
bycatch mortality of young red snapper. The first bycatch
reduction device (BRD) mandate for Gulf shrimp trawls came
in 1998; the hope was that about three-quarters of juvenile
red snapper would escape each net. Since then, trials have
demonstrated low efficacy (about 15 percent) in releasing
juvenile red snapper via previously permitted designs. Temporary
closures of certain juvenile habitat to trawling has been
under consideration, but the recent reductions in trawling
effort and implementation of new BRD designs have allowed
postponement of closure considerations, at least temporarily.
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