RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal regulators eased up Friday on plans to protect red snapper off the Southeast coast, announcing they will not bar the catch of related species in a particularly rich region.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, meeting in New Bern, said it will allow fishing for grouper, triggerfish, and more than 70 other species with habitats similar to red snapper in a 4,800-square-mile zone from southern Georgia to just south of Melbourne, Fla.
A ban on both commercial and recreational catches of red snapper imposed in January continues in federal waters between three miles and 200 miles off the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia and east Florida.
Regulators considered extending the ban to other species such as triggerfish because fishermen targeting them often wind up catching red snapper.
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