March 11, 2022 — A move to reallocate Gulf of Mexico red grouper has marshaled a broad coalition of fishing, seafood and food service industry groups asking federal officials to reconsider.

In a region where fishery politics are dominated by the recreational sector, commercial fishing advocates aided by allies in the restaurant and seafood industries mounted a big pushback on the planned Amendment 53 to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council reef fish management plan.

But in a March 9 letter, NMFS regional administrator Andrew Strelcheck advised the council that NMFS intends to approve the move.

In June 2021 the Gulf of Mexico council voted to change the recreational and commercial allocations of red grouper, based on recent changes to NMFS surveys of recreational fishing effort that showed the recreational side caught more fish during allocation reference years than had been estimated before.

The net effect would be to reduce the commercial sector’s allocation from 76 percent to 59.3 percent, while and increasing the recreational share from 24 percent to 40.7 percent, according to a Seafood Harvesters of America comment letter to NMFS.

“Effectively, this will result in a reduction of nearly one-third (32 percent) of the commercial sector’s allocation,” the group wrote.

“There were some pretty impressive organizations that were against the amendment,” the Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance noted in a bulletin to its members. “These included the National Restaurant Association, the National Fisheries Institute, the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, The (National) Food Industry Association, Seafood Harvesters of America, Southeastern Fisheries Association, Southern Offshore Fishing Association, Gulf Coast Seafood Alliance, National Association of Charterboat Operators, Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, Fish for America USA, Southern Offshore Fishing Association, and the National Association of Charterboat Operators.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman