I realize a great deal of members fish the east Coast and have no dog in this fight but the fact remains it could be your fishery next. Unfortunalty we expected this but hoped the descision would have some commen sense approach. NOT

The National Marine Fisheries Service along with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Managment council have agreed on the 2008 Snapper regulations for the Gulf of mexico. Higthlights are that 72 days and 700,00 pounds have been cut from the recreational catch. What is complete BS is this descision based on the facts from their reports.......
Alabamas artifical reef program is more extensive than any other state in the nation. BUT this snapper population is not included in the total Gulf Snapper population because it is not found over natural bottom.The NMFS goes on to state that artifical reefs are known to improve recreational fishing opportunities for red snapper and may increase red snapper productivity.

"Conversely," the NMFS said, "artifical reefs serve as fish-attracting devices and, therefore, increase fishing mortality." In regard to the latter statement, presumably NMFS is saying since reefs tend to concentrate fish, more fishing pressure occurs over reefs and therefore, more fish die from being caught and kept or released only to die later.

The problem with that presumtption, however, is that NMFS does not know if more fish are dying over the reefs than the reefs produce because they do not count those fish when assessing the Gulf stock of red snapper.

The descision was determined from 2003 National information.
Alabama Marine resources division reports that there are more snapper in the gulf than ever before and the average size snapper has tripled in last 10 years
The eastern portion of the gulf support much better snapper populations than the west
The largest contributor to snapper mortality is by-catch from the brown shrimp fishery followed by commercial catch and by-catch of the commercial snapper fishery followed by catch by-catch of the recreational fishery.

Why should the recreational fishermen and the charter fleet take all the pain if there is in fact an issue. I for one am all for making changes if the fishery is in trouble. One of the first suggestions was to divide the gulf into zones. The NMFS felt that would be too complicated. Evidently we who snapper fish are not as smart as the Dove hunter, duck hunter, trout fishermen, whalers, the list goes on!

And what about commercial by-catch? Ever fished behind a shrimp boat sorting their catch???? Admittidly this one is tricky and I have heard no realistic solution but this should not mean ignore the issue and we punish others. What about the commercail snapper boat, what is the life expectancy of a 11 inch fish realised? The same on a chater boat if the fish is de hooked clean, vented and return to the water quickly.

Hey, commercial seasons? Yea, this consideration went no where? Why? I'm only guessing but probably had something to do with high paid lobbyist. Makes since though. If you give seasons to the the rec guys, should the same hold true for the commercial guys. Charter fleets have made it fishing April - October for years. The rec guys went to a 2 fish min last year , commercial should go to a reduction of 1 million lbs and a 11 month season,

Does it really help? Boats will still run, we will just target other species. Does this just shift the problem? It will be real interesting to see the King and Dolphin populations in 3 years. If there is an issue, and I believe there is in the Western gulf, address it! But work on the cause. The cause is shared by all who fish, share the responsibility.