Saving Seafood

FLORIDA: Florida accepting public feedback on Big Bend oyster management

August 26, 2026 — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is seeking public comments on how it should manage oyster harvesting in the Big Bend region of the state.

Once a successful commercial fishery, the Big Bend lost roughly 66 percent of its oyster reefs between 1982 and 2011. The region also faced additional pressure following the collapse of the oyster population in Apalachicola Bay in 2013, with annual Big Bend harvests peaking in 2017 with 60,000 bags sold. Landings have significantly decreased since, with the total bags sold not surpassing 10,000 bags in either of the last two years. There were only 32 commercial harvesters in 2025.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Study piloting use of black soldier flies to solve Florida’s sargassum issues

August 18, 2026 — A new study by the University of Miami is trying to determine whether black soldier fly larvae could be a scalable solution to the U.S. state of Florida’s sargassum problem.

Florida’s Atlantic coast is regularly hit by “sargassum inundation events,” which cover the shoreline in massive piles of the seaweed. Researchers have determined the problem has been beginning earlier in the year, and in 2026, South Florida’s shores have been hit with a record-breaking bloom, according to the study’s authors.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

State-managed recreational red snapper harvest proposals come in 10 times bigger than current limit

August 12, 2026 — Proposals for state management of the South Atlantic red snapper fishery in federal waters set a collective harvest limit of 215,391 fish, roughly 10 times higher than the previous recreational harvest limit of 22,797 fish.

The proposals were submitted by the state governments of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina and would set month-long recreational seasons in the fall.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US senators call for sanctions on vessels that support China’s distant water fishing fleet

July 28, 2026 — A handful of U.S. senators have asked the Department of the Treasury to issue sanctions on vessels that support China’s distant water fishing fleet, continuing a push from U.S. lawmakers to limit China’s commercial fishing and seafood sectors.

“The Chinese Communist Party is using its global distant-water fleet to conduct ecocide across at least three continents in both hemispheres. They kill endangered species by the hundreds and sharks, whales, and dolphins by the thousands, and have destroyed tens of thousands of acres of coral reefs,” U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a statement. “Their fleet uses coerced laborers, who are subjected to physical abuse, malnutrition, overwork, and withheld pay. They could not conduct these activities without supply ships, including reefers, tankers, and floating bases. The U.S. should bolster our Maritime Domain Awareness capabilities to identify these vessels, and then we should use every available option to sanction and disrupt them.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Fishermen seek to sink grouper limit at 11th Circuit

Two Florida-based fishermen asked the 11th Circuit Thursday to strike down a regulation limiting commercially caught gag grouper, arguing a regional fishery management council did not have the constitutional authority to implement the restrictions.

In 2024, Dominick and James Russo, who own FFC Seafood in Sarasota, Florida, sued the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries in Alabama federal court over Amendment 56. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council — a regional body made up of state-level appointees — crafted the rule, which cut quotas for gag group by 85%. The federal agencies approved and promulgated the regulation.

The 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act created eight regional fishery councils responsible for submitting management plans to the commerce secretary to set catch limits and prevent overfishing in federal waters. The statute gives the councils, made up of members appointed at the state level, the power to veto certain decisions by the secretary that change catch limits or reject the councils’ management plans.

The brothers contend that despite exercising “significant” federal control of the fisheries, the members of the council are not appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate, making their decisions unconstitutional under the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

Gulf lawmakers aim to extend state borders to 9 miles offshore

July 15, 2026 — A bipartisan coalition of Gulf Coast lawmakers is pushing to change a 73-year-old law that limits their states’ maritime boundaries to 3 miles offshore, potentially reshaping the regulation of local fisheries and generating billions of dollars in tax revenues from offshore energy and minerals leases.

Introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell, R-Miss., and a group of legislators that includes Reps. Troy Carter Sr., D-La., Clay Higgins, R-La., and Shomari Figures, D-Ala., the Offshore Parity Act would extend state waters from 3 nautical miles out to 9 – matching the long-held boundaries of Texas and Florida.

Read the full article at The Center Square

Court blocks South Atlantic red snapper permits; Georgia pilot season delayed

June 22, 2026 — A proposed 62‑day recreational red snapper season in federal waters off Georgia that was to begin July 1 has been delayed after a federal judge blocked a set of Exempted Fishing Permits for South Atlantic states, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said.

The injunction, issued by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, prevents implementation of the permits while a legal challenge proceeds. The permits affected submissions from Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The permit that would have allowed Georgia’s pilot season was challenged in federal court by the Southeastern Fisheries Association. Environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund and Ocean Conservancy, supported the lawsuit.

Georgia DNR has withdrawn its original request and plans to file a revised EFP application, the agency said.

“While this outcome is certainly disappointing, we remain committed to expanding access to red snapper fishing opportunities for Georgia anglers,” said Walter Rabon, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “We believe state‑led management and improved data collection can provide a better path forward, and we will continue working with our partners to pursue that goal.”

Read the full article at News 4 Jax

FLORIDA: All snapped up, Destin charter fleet kicks off red snapper season

June 3, 2026 — One down, 146 more to go.

June 1 marked the start of the red snapper fishing season, and anglers came from near and far to take advantage of the kickoff.

Back in April, the NOAA Fisheries announced the red snapper season for vessels with a federal for-hire reef fish permit, which is the majority of the Destin charter fleet, would be 147 days. The season, which is 19 days longer than last year, started June 1 and closes at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 26.

Read the full article at The Destin Log

WHY DID A COURT DECIDE TO ENJOIN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC RED SNAPPER EFPS?

June 1, 2026 — Bottom fishermen throughout eastern Florida felt growing excitement as Memorial Day weekend approached, and the state’s anticipated 39-day South Atlantic red snapper season.

For well over a decade, there had been few opportunities for anglers to target red snapper.  The fish were abundant and willing to bite, and It turned out that was a problem, because recreational fishermen kept catching, and unintentionally killing, red snapper while fishing for other species, even when the red snapper season was closed.  Things got so bad that, out of the 509,000-fish annual catch limit, 475,000 were allocated to dead discards (almost all of which were generated by anglers), while just 22,797 were set aside for anglers to keep and take home, with the remainder allocated to the commercial fishery.

Because they never managed to get their dead discards under control, the recreational red snapper season could only be open for one or two days.  Any longer, and overfishing would be the result.

Thus, the recreational fishing industry and the anglers’ rights community tried to win themselves an extended fishing season, and larger red snapper landings—even at the price of increased fishing mortality—by convincing state and federal regulators that the National Marine Fisheries Service should issue exempted fishing permits to the states, ostensibly to test new approaches to data collection, which would also allow anglers to ignore the annual red snapper catch limit, fish for an extended period, and bring more red snapper home.

Those permits were issued on May 1.  On May 5, members of the commercial fishing industry filed a legal action seeking to enjoin the operation of the permits, arguing that recreational fishing pursuant to the permits would cause the South Atlantic red snapper stock to be overfished, causing harm to those members of the commercial fishing industry who also harvest red snapper.  On May 21, just hours before Florida’s expanded recreational season for South Atlantic red snapper was to open, a judge sitting on the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction which halted fishing activity pursuant to the exempted fishing permits until the matter can be decided on its merits.

Read the full article at ONE ANGLER’S VOYAGE

FLORIDA: Gov. DeSantis snaps back at red snapper setback

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.

Read the full article at Florida Politics