May 26, 2026 — The season almost began before a judge put the start on pause.
A defiant Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped a recent judicial decision throwing the near-term fate of Florida’s newly-expanded Atlantic Ocean red snapper season into doubt.
“This is a judge in Washington, D.C. Probably doesn’t know the first thing about fishing. And they’re doing this. It’s not a good decision,” DeSantis said in Jacksonville at Ribault High School.
On May 21, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, an appointee of former President Barack Obama who did his undergraduate work at Florida State University, issued an injunction blocking recreational fishing in Atlantic waters.
The block was ill-timed, issued one day before it was slated to start Friday, as the Judge sided with the Southeastern Fisheries Association.
DeSantis said the decision will be appealed, blasting “commercial fishermen” who “want it all for themselves” as he argued that there were plenty of fish in the sea.