We have some answers on the red snapper harvest for recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council met April 16-20 in Gulfport, Mississippi. Council members received an update from NOAA Fisheries on  the issue that has been the bane of the Teche Area’s offshore fishermen for more than a decade. 

For starters, a federally permitted for-hire season will be open for 51 days in 2018, from 12:01 a.m. June 1 to 12:01 July 22.

Also, NOAA Fisheries has issued the controversial exempted fishing permits that allow each of the five Gulf states to set its own season for red snapper in state and federal waters in 2018 and again in 2019. The Council notes that when fishing for red snapper in federal waters, private anglers will need a permit or license from the state in which they wish to land and that state’s season in federal waters must be open.

Private anglers can fish anywhere in federal waters, including federal waters off a state with a closed season, if the state’s season where they intend to land is open. They must abide by all other regulations for landing in the state and follow the federal bag limit of two fish per person and minimum size limit of 16 inches.

State license for-hire vessels without a federal Gulf Charter/Headboat Permit for Reef fish may not fish or possesses red snapper in or from federal waters.

If you have questions about the private angler season, call (504) 284-2032.

The Council didn’t stop there. Council members continued work on a series of documents that would enable each Gulf state to manage recreational harvest of red snapper in federal waters. 

The Council removed all allocation alternatives with a time series that terminate in 2019 and added a new alternative that would establish state management allocations for private anglers only, based on the allocations set in the five exempted fishing permits for recreational red snapper fishing in 2018 and 2019.

Council members also selected preferred alternatives for the Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi documents that would allow them to set the bag limit, minimum size limit (within the range of 14-18 inches) and maximum size limit, and to remove the prohibition on for-hire crew from retaining a bag limit.

They will continue to work on those documents at a meeting in June.

 

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.