Saving Seafood

Gulf Council promises red snapper season similar to last year’s

April 19, 2021 — The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, known as the “Gulf Council,” is promising a similar red snapper season to last year’s. As always, the catch will be limited.

The season for commercial anglers or charter boats has been set for June 1 through August 3. Private anglers will find out exact dates for a season early next week.

Ever since Alabama was given the authority to manage and set limits in its own waters three years ago, the promise has been to ensure private anglers have access to what is known to be an abundant resource of red snapper.

“For the 2021 season, we are going to fish to about the level that we have fished for about the last two years. Around a million pounds,” said Scott Bannon, Director of Alabama’s Marine Resource Division. Bannon says unfortunately how much you can bring home isn’t going to change from last year. Even as studies show there could be three times as many red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico now compared to previous estimates.

Read the full story at NBC 15

Feds aim for reduced red snapper season in 2021

March 1, 2021 — Alabama anglers and seafood lovers who have mistrusted the federal red snapper management program in the past won’t like it any better in the coming year after NOAA Fisheries announced plans to “calibrate” the state’s snapper reporting system to better manage the fishery. What calibration means in this case is to cut in half, apparently, and that means far shorter seasons and reduced bag limits for the popular table fish this summer.

“Under the Gulf Council state management plan, there is a section that says there will be a calibration factor between the federal surveys and what they say about how many fish are landed in each state and what our surveys show are landed,” says Scott Bannon, Director of the Alabama Marine Resources Division (MRD). “Ultimately, NMFS wants to use that calibration number to develop what they call a ‘common currency’ across the Gulf for each state survey.”

Under certain calibration alternatives, Alabama’s quota for red snapper could go from 1.12 million pounds in 2020 to 547,298 pounds in 2021.

“We’re in disagreement with that, and we are working through the Gulf Council process to find an alternative and not have a dramatic cut in our season,” Bannon said. “Mississippi’s calibration is larger than Alabama’s, and they would see a season cut even larger than that. The other Gulf states, Texas, Louisiana and Florida, would stay similar to last year’s quotas.”

Read the full story at AL.com

Restoration projects seek to fight “tragic” decline in Gulf of Mexico oyster population

November 19, 2018 — Last week, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources officially moved to cancel the state’s wild oyster season, which would have run from November through April.

Exploratory dives at oyster harvesting grounds had revealed a continued steep decline in the number of oysters in the state’s waters. Last year’s season was curtailed after fishermen harvested just 136 110-pound sacks of oysters, down from 7,000 sacks in 2013, according to the Associated Press.

Scott Bannon, director of the Marine Resources Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said the findings revealed the apparent collapse of the region’s oyster ecology.

“It’s tragic, to be honest,” Bannon told AL.com.

Numerous factors have dealt blows not just to Alabama’s oyster grounds, but those of the entire Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, hurricanes, disease, and changes in freshwater flows to Gulf rivers and streams have collectively damaged the fishery to the point where up to 85 percent of the gulf’s original oyster reefs no longer remain intact.

According to a new report by The Nature Conservancy, “Oyster Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico,” this dramatic decline has damaged the stability and productivity of the Gulf’s estuaries and harmed coastal economies.

Seth Blitch, the director of coastal and marine conservation in Louisiana for The Nature Conservancy, told SeafoodSource the oyster habitat and the oyster fishery “is not in a particularly good place right now,” which could spell bigger problems for the region.

“Oysters, to me, are a great proxy to a lot of things,” he said. “If oysters are doing well, that’s a good indication of good water quality and of the health entire near-shore estuarine system. When oysters start to fail, that’s good indication there are larger issues at play.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Fisheries approves Alabama snapper program

October 12, 2018 — The federal government has approved a system developed by the state of Alabama to count the number of red snapper caught in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf states, fishing groups and the NOAA Fisheries have disagreed for years about how many snapper can be caught. The decision means Alabama’s numbers can be used in the federal count.

The state’s Marine Resources director, Scott Bannon, says anglers are frustrated with short snapper seasons. He says the federal decision is a “huge step” toward managing gulf waters.

The state developed the Snapper Check program in 2014. It uses a combination of electronic reporting by anglers and dockside checks to verify the number of snapper that boats are keeping.

Read the full story from the Associated Press