The South Atlantic Fishery Council voted 7-6 last night at its meeting on Jekyll Island, Ga., to enact an interim ban on commercial and recreational red snapper fishing.
If approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the ban would encompass federal waters (three to 200 miles offshore) from North Carolina to the Florida Keys. It could go into effect following the council's next meeting in June and last up to six months, with the option of a six-month renewal.
The red snapper ban is a response to a federal mandate to prevent overfishing. If a long-term amendment, which will protect 10 overfished species of snapper and grouper, including red snapper, is passed later this year, the interim measure would be superseded.
In 2007, red snapper landings reached 86,828 pounds on Florida's east coast, 4,948 pounds in Georgia, 14,521 in South Carolina and 7,287 pounds in North Carolina, according to NMFS. By comparison, the Gulf Coast states (Florida's west coast, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas) landed nearly 3 million pounds of red snapper.
March 5, 2009
