Stop and listen: Do you hear that buzzing noise? It's the grumbling from red snapper fishermen and buyers in the Gulf who are anticipating the results of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting in Houston this week.
At stake during the meeting is the future of Amendment 28, which would reallocate more of the red snapper quota currently allotted to commercial fishermen to recreational interests. This could hamper the supply of domestic red snapper going to U.S. restaurant menus and retail stores.
This potential outcome led chefs, restaurant owners, fishermen, seafood industry leaders and conservationists last October to form Share the Gulf, a coalition to support fair access to red snapper. This group of more than 150 has almost doubled in size over the concern that red snapper could disappear from menus and retail establishments not just in the Gulf, but nationwide. Share the Gulf's message is clear: Shifting the allocation to more recreational interests over commercial will jeopardize fishermen and businesses throughout the Gulf region, and could cut off public access to red snapper.
Consider this: The red snapper quota allocation of 8.46 million pounds (whole weight) is 51 percent for commercial fishermen and 49 percent recreational. However, recreational management struggles under the current system and allows large overharvests (46 percent over in 2012), which hardly supports the goal of maintaining sustainable harvest levels to help the fishery rebuild. According to Share the Gulf, the offshore recreational fishermen are stuck in a failed management system that leads to the fishery exceeding its limit every season and inaccurate and insufficient data collection, which has forced regulators to shorten the season year after year.
The irony in Amendment 28 is that red snapper was removed from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program's avoid list in September. This has given buyers who follow the list's recommendations motivation to add the reef fish back onto menus.
Stephen Stryjewski, James Beard award-wining chef of Cochon and Pêche Seafood Grill in New Orleans, is one Share the Gulf supporter. If he was unable to source local red snapper he'd have to switch to other types of fish. "It would be pretty hard for many restaurants to be able to find alternatives without supplementing local fish with some imported fish," he said.
In a time when chefs and other buyers are struggling to keep wild domestic seafood as an option for their customers, eliminating red snapper from the mix would deal a crushing blow to the region's seafood businesses.
Many in the Gulf are eagerly waiting the news out of Houston this week to see if the battle will continue. The decision there could influence recreational actions in other U.S. regions. If you buy seafood from another fishery that also competes with recreational interests, you'll want to pay close attention.
