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.
June 3, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is accepting public comments on a proposal to switch over more commercial fishers in the Gulf of Mexico – currently referred to as the Gulf of America by the administration of President Donald Trump – and South Atlantic Ocean from traditional, paper logbooks to electronic logbooks.
If approved, the change would apply to all federally permitted commercial fishers harvesting Gulf reef fish, Gulf or Atlantic coastal migratory pelagic species, Atlantic dolphin and wahoo, and species in the South Atlantic snapper-grouper complex.
June 3, 2026 — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling met with local farmers Monday to hear their concerns as rising fuel and production costs take their toll.
During a stop at David Parker Farms in New Bern, farmers from Carteret, Craven and other N.C. counties joined in a roundtable discussion with Rollins and Brooks and spoke about issues facing eastern North Carolina’s agriculture and fishing industries.
Glenn Skinner, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, said he viewed the visit as a positive step. Skinner said he was pleased that the Department of Agriculture has created a new Office of Seafood dedicated specifically to the fishing industry.
“We generally haven’t been recognized as food producers and treated the same as farmers,” Skinner said. “So we’re really excited to have them here, and that’s a big deal for our industry to finally have a place to turn when you have an issue, somebody that you can call and hopefully get some resolution in the future.”
June 2, 2026 — The U.S. secretary of agriculture and the acting secretary of labor visited Craven County today to speak with farmers about their concerns.
Officials held a roundtable at David Parker Farms, where local farmers raised concerns about labor costs.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins said multiple factors affect labor costs.
“Farm economy is struggling. The cost of inputs obviously skyrocketed under the last administration, and they were coming down. The Iranian conflict has caused a short blip in the increase, but this blip is coming during planting season, which is not ideal, so making sure we understand that, but also building for the long term,” Rollins said.
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.
May 28, 2026 — The following was released by the The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold its June Council meeting from June 8-12, 2026, at the World Golf Village Renaissance St. Augustine Resort in St. Augustine, Florida.
The week will begin with a closed session during which the Council will appoint advisors and select the 2025 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. Following various updates and reports during the Full Council Session I, the Snapper Grouper Committee will address commercial permitting and trip efficiency measures, headboat vessel limits, fishery management unit revisions, and other topics. The Dolphin Wahoo Committee will then discuss the Dolphin Management Strategy Evaluation and Regulatory Amendment 3. Lastly, the Outreach and Communications Committee will consider outreach and communication goals and review the Return ’Em Right (RER) expansion to the South Atlantic.
A public comment session will be held on Wednesday, June 10, beginning at 4 p.m. Individuals wishing to provide comments may attend the meeting in person, provide verbal comments virtually via webinar, or provide written comments online (comment period is from May 22 through June 12). Meeting materials, the full agenda, and webinar registration are available on the Council’s website.
May 26 2026 — When the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued Exempted Fishing Permits (EFPs) in early May to states from North Carolina south, Atlantic red snapper anglers couldn’t hold in their excitement. That’s because offshore anglers in the South Atlantic have been completely handcuffed from targeting and keeping red snapper for years. Since 2020, the red snapper season in Atlantic federal waters has been just one to four days in July. Even before 2020, the red snapper season has been in overhaul mode since 2010 — there hasn’t been an Atlantic federal recreational season that’s exceeded 8 days since then.
The EFPs are a way for the states to finally have longer recreational red snapper seasons in 2026. Officially, NMFS said:
“The EFPs allow the states to pilot test state data collection and management strategies for the recreational harvest of red snapper in 2026. The EFPs are intended to improve data on recreational fishing effort and catch of red snapper in the South Atlantic and to inform the development of a long-term state-led management strategy for the recreational harvest of red snapper.”
What that means for anglers is a 2026 season that spans months, not a weekend. Off Florida, anglers in federal waters receive 39 days (May 22 – June 20, October 2-4, October 9-11, and October 16-18), while Georgia and the Carolinas enjoy 62 days (July 1 – August 31). Bag limit is just one red snapper a day, but that couldn’t stop the overall buzz and excitement around the docks.
First up was the Sunshine State. In Florida, anglers readied their boats for a Memorial weekend fishing trip, while charters from Jacksonville south were booked with expectant bottom fishermen. As part of the EFPs, anglers are required to declare their fishing trip and report back their red snapper catches.
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.
May 22, 2026 — The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has issued a preliminary injunction temporarily halting four states from expanding their recreational red snapper fishing seasons under exempting fishing permits (EFP) issued earlier in May.
“The South Atlantic EFPs for Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina are no longer in effect until further order from the Court, and the recreational harvest of red snapper in the South Atlantic remains closed,” NOAA Fisheries said in a 21 May statement. “All recreational fishing under these South Atlantic EFPs is not authorized, including tomorrow’s start date of May 22, 2026, for Florida’s recreational red snapper season.”
May 22, 2026 — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is battling a federal court ruling that has thrown the state’s red snapper fishing season into chaos, just as anglers were gearing up for the opening day.
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction on Thursday against the recently approved Exempted Fishing Permits (EFPs) that were set to allow fishing for this popular species in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
As a result of the court’s decision, all recreational fishing under these EFPs is suspended, effectively closing the red snapper season until further notice.