Feds aim for reduced red snapper season in 2021
Updated Feb 28, 2021;
Alabama anglers and seafood lovers who have mistrusted the federal red snapper management program in the past won’t like it any better in the coming year after NOAA Fisheries announced plans to “calibrate” the state’s snapper reporting system to better manage the fishery. What calibration means in this case is to cut in half, apparently, and that means far shorter seasons and reduced bag limits for the popular table fish this summer.
“Under the Gulf Council state management plan, there is a section that says there will be a calibration factor between the federal surveys and what they say about how many fish are landed in each state and what our surveys show are landed,” says Scott Bannon, Director of the Alabama Marine Resources Division (MRD). “Ultimately, NMFS wants to use that calibration number to develop what they call a ‘common currency’ across the Gulf for each state survey.”