Commissioners set Gulf red snapper recreational season
News Release
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Media contact: Aaron Podey, 850-487-0554
(Back to Commission meeting news)
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
approved a rule Thursday that makes the recreational harvest season
for red snapper in Gulf of Mexico state waters consistent with the
recently announced season in Gulf federal waters. This year's
open recreational harvest season for red snapper in Gulf state
waters will be June 1 through July 18. Florida state waters in
the Gulf extend out to nine nautical miles from shore; federal
waters extend beyond that line.
Gulf red snapper stocks are rebuilding but are
still considered to be undergoing overfishing, which means that red
snapper are being taken at a rate greater than established
management goals for this fishery. Shortening the fishing season in
Gulf state waters this year will help to avoid a harvest overrun
and continue to rebuild red snapper populations so that longer red
snapper fishing seasons will be possible in the future.
The Commission also gave the FWC's executive
director the approval to use his executive authority to allow an
additional harvest season for red snapper in the Gulf at the
summer's end if NOAA Fisheries Service implements a supplemental
season.
More information regarding
red snapper fishing regulations is available online at
MyFWC.com/Fishing.
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