"The emergency measure gives the NMFS the power to close the red snapper season in federal water off state water where state marine resources officials have chosen not to follow federal regulations."
I don't really follow what the heck this means, the NMFS can close the federal waters off the Louisiana coast? They can do that anyways right? That is FEDERAL waters, what am I missing here? They can do this to compliant states like Alabama also I would think. Now that there are a few non-compliant states, they have to include the language to include even the non-compliant states.
Maybe there really is a decline in red snapper populations, I don't know. Not sure where the data is for this species, but I know that in Louisiana we are spoiled with incredible fishing for these fish mainly due to are oil platforms. You can dive down and see them by the thousands.This isn't the case all over the gulf of Mexico, there are probably places even in Louisiana in 50' - 400' of water where there isn't a snapper for miles due to zero structure. These fish rely on structure, and Louisiana has lots of artificial structure. These fish are also very long-lived fish and take a long time to get to reproductive age. These are the type of fish that can get fished out. The commercial fishermen get their quota and the recreational fishermen get their quota. This sucks because Louisiana is such a fish rich place that we haven't had to worry about strict fishing quotas. It is coming though. First red snapper, now tuna, whats next? I have nothing against commercial fishermen, I think that a person should be able to go to a restaurant and eat a red snapper. Luckily for us, at those same rigs there are plenty of mangroves, grouper, triggerfish, cobia, and amberjack to take up the slack. To me the simplest solution is to have a per person limit but no size limit. The first fish you catch, you have to keep that fish whether its 12" long or 25 lbs. This would eliminate lots of undersized fish getting caught and thrown back just to die.
As usual on louisiana sportsman, someone had to throw in some CCA bashing in there also
