Saving Seafood

Gulf of Mexico fishery council drops ‘Mexico’ from name

April 27, 2025 — Goodbye, Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

Hello, Gulf Council, a shorter and politically defused name for the independent advisory board that for decades has informed NOAA Fisheries’ decision-making in the the 617,000-square-mile gulf that abuts five Southern states — as well Mexico and Cuba.

In a release Thursday, leaders of the Tampa-based fishery council announced the name along with a new logo and redesigned website conspicuously absent of the word “Mexico.”

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Gulf Council approves new logbook system for Gulf shrimpers

April 14, 2025 –The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has approved a new electronic logbook system, replacing the current system that hasn’t worked correctly since 2020.

NOAA Fisheries relies on an electronic logbook system to track shrimpers activity in the Gulf of Mexico, currently referred to as the Gulf of America by the Trump administration. The system was built to transmit data over a cellular connection and give regulators a continuously updated “shrimp effort estimate.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Red snapper reopens for federal for-hire permitted boats. Is this good for the fishery?

November 19, 2024 — After one of the longest red snapper seasons in more than a decade, the red snapper federal for-hire season is reopening again.

Although it may be good for a little extra business, Destin charter boat captains are not so sure it will be good for the fishery.

“I think it was a nice gesture, if that’s what you want to call it, and I’m sure it will generate a few trips for some boats, which is great,” said Capt. Justin Destin of the Un Reel. “But I’m more concerned with the well-being of the population of red snapper in our area. There’s a reason we are not catching our quota during the longest season we’ve had in years. More days is not the answer.”

Federal for-hire boats just finished an 88-day red snapper season, June 1 to Aug. 28.

According to a news release from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, “NOAA Fisheries determined that the red snapper recreational federal for-hire annual catch target was not reached during the open season.”

Read the full article at The Destin Log

Fishing advocates say new Gulf council appointments ‘maintaining a balance’

July 3, 2024 — A Florida commercial fisherman and an Alabama charter operator are newly appointed to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, among 22 new and returning members to the six regional U.S. Councils named by the Department of Commerce.

The new Gulf appointments “are a positive step in the right direction by maintaining a balance of interests,” according to the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance.

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo named  Juan “John” Sanchez of Florida and Troy Frady, a charter captain from Orange Beach, Ala. The appointments “are a positive step in the right direction by maintaining a balance of interests on the Gulf Council, with three of the seventeen members making a living in the commercial or charter/for-hire fisheries under the Gulf Council’s purview,” according to the alliance.

However, the group added, “we still have a long way to go before there is truly balanced representation on the Gulf Council from all fishing sectors – commercial, charter/for-hire, and private anglers.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Can Gulf fishermen balance the fishery management council?

June 7, 2023 — For four generations, my family has been putting food on the table, both on our own and the nation’s, by fishing the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. You may say that it is in my blood, but the truth is fishing is in my heart – it’s part of my identity.

One thing that we’ve come to count on is that the decision-makers that manage our fisheries balance the need to produce sustainable domestic seafood, support fishing communities and provide recreational opportunities, while retaining plenty of fish in the water to ensure a good catch in following years.  But now, I’m worried about the future of fishing in the Gulf. A big part of my concern can be tied to the lack of balanced representation on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.  We must ask ourselves, has maintaining sustainable fisheries taken a backseat to cronyism?

Not too long ago, fisheries management in the Gulf was working. Fish stocks were increasing, small family businesses were thriving and profitable, and we had fair representation in the management process. However, in the past few years that trend has reversed, and now species like gag and greater amberjack are facing 80 percent quota reductions because the stocks are not healthy. Coinciding with this downturn is a dramatic shift away from a well-balanced Gulf Council membership to one that is dominated by just a single sector—the private recreational sector.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Gulf of Mexico charter captains wade into red grouper court case

September 8, 2022 — Commercial fishermen who are challenging a major shift of Gulf of Mexico red grouper quotas to the recreational sector have drawn the surprising support of charter boat operators, who argue the revised quotas would hurt their businesses as well.

On its face, the decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service to ratify the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s new allocation policy would give the charter fleet more fish too. But the change will bring other outcomes to hurt the charter sector, said captain Scott Hickman, operator of Circle H Outfitters and Charters in Galveston, Texas, and a board member of the Charter Fishermen’s Association.

“We’ve been down this road before,” said Hickman. “You set a precedent for taking quota from an accountable sector, and dropping it into a black hole.”

Announced by NMFS this spring, Amendment 53 to the Gulf reef fish plan would reduce the annual commercial allocation to 59.3 percent, down from 76 percent, and increase the recreational allocation from 24 percent to 40.7 percent.

The move is being challenged in federal district court by the Galveston, Texas-based Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance, the A.P. Bell Fish Company, of Cortez, Florida, and the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, a longliner group based in Madeira Beach, Florida.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance Release Statement on Red Snapper Increase

August 30, 2022 — Shareholders’ Alliance is making sure that their voice is heard following a red snapper quota increase announced by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

The Council issued a news release last week about the final action on a framework action to modify red snapper catch limits. They said that they chose to decrease the overfishing limit and increase the acceptable biological catch, annual catch limits, and annual catch targets. The total annual catch limit is currently at 15,100,000 pounds and the newly recommended limit is 16,310,000 pounds. For the commercial annual catch limit, the current is 7,701,000 pounds and the newly recommended is 8,318,100 pounds.

“When the Gulf of Mexico Fishery management Council met in Corpus Christi last week, commercial and charter fishermen from Texas to Florida packed the meeting room and were unified around a single message – we are seeing warning signs that red snapper have started to decline,” said the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance. “Their ask was simple: please don’t increase the red snapper quota right now.”

According to the Council, the recommended catch limits are based on recommendations from the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee and new catch advice generated using updated estimates of absolute abundance of red snapper derived from the Great Red Snapper Count (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas) and by LGL Ecological Associates, Inc. (Louisiana). The Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance says that the council ignored “emotional testimony” from more than 40 small fishing business owners whose livelihoods and communities depend on healthy red snapper stocks.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Red grouper could be precedent for new Gulf catch reallocations

June 17, 2022 — Gulf of Mexico reef fish fishermen expect to face off in court against the National Marine Fisheries Service later this summer. They’re challenging the agency’s recent reallocation of some of their red grouper Individual Fishing Quota to the recreational sector.

Fishermen have more at stake than the cut in their grouper quota: NMFS and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council are already forging ahead with serial reallocations of other fisheries. The lawsuit may be their best, if not only, chance to stop them.

“We’re 2 and 0 against the NMFS in the courts,” said Eric Brazer, deputy director of the Galveston, Texas-based Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance. Other plaintiffs in the suit include A.P. Bell Fish Company, of Cortez, Florida, and the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, a longliner group based in Madeira Beach, Florida.

The courts sided with commercial fishermen in 2014 and 2017 when they challenged the council and NMFS over actions to extend the recreational red snapper season and reallocate more quota to the sector.

“The council took action that harmed the commercial fishermen and rewarded the recreational fishermen. We told them it was not legal, they didn’t believe us. They approved the document, we took them to court, and we won,” said Brazer.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Gulf of Mexico fishermen, supporters organize to challenge red grouper reallocation

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

 

Gulf of Mexico commercial fisherman upset at red grouper allocation

July 12, 2021 — Commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico said they were shocked to see their share of the red grouper quota cut by 600,000 pounds.

A statement released Tuesday, 29, June by the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance said the reallocation to recreational fishermen means a loss of about USD 3 million (EUR 2.5 million), a significant loss for “fishing families.” They also fear it could lead to overfishing of the species.

Read the full story at Seafood Source