The fate of Gulf red snapper is playing out as dramatically
and powerfully as any stage production.

No one ever claimed that fisheries management was high drama. Even if they felt it, they probably would not admit it outside of the eclectic commission and council subculture. Nonetheless, the management of Gulf of Mexico red snapper continues to unfold with dramatic flare.

Intrigue, denial, shifts of fortune and surprise endings have come to typify the management of this fishery. The sedentary snapper’s fate has played out from the high-profile stages of U.S. District and Circuit Courts to the esoteric off-Broadway venues of the traveling Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. If you have followed the winding plot of this contentious fishery during the past decade, you may now see it suddenly thicken.

Enter a venerable Alabama scientist from stage right. Actually, Dr. Bob Shipp has been a lead character in this play since it was a mere sideshow of the Gulf Council’s entertaining repertoire. Dr. Shipp has served on the Gulf Council for nine years, twice as Chairman. Combined with his Ph.D. from Florida State University, Dr. Shipp knows the socio-political and management implications of any revolutionary scientific insight into fisheries management.

At the January meeting of the Gulf Council, Dr. Shipp presented an eye-opening perspective on management of the Gulf red snapper fishery.

“The rebuilding process of the Gulf snapper fishery has impacted everyone involved,” said Shipp. “Recreational fishermen have seen their bag and seasons restricted, commercial fishermen now participate in a dangerous derby fishery and shrimpers reluctantly pull court mandated bycatch reduction devices. Every consumptive and non-consumptive user group has become entangled in this tar baby.”

Some environmental groups have called for a complete moratorium for red snapper harvest, while some recreational fishing interests have argued for easing bag, size and seasonal restrictions. But what if snapper stocks are not dissipated but actually at historic highs, and current management is building rather than rebuilding an overfished snapper population? What do you do when you are no longer recovering a species but rather expanding it?

This is a shocking concept, but according to Dr. Shipp, historically accurate. “Intuitively, this veritable dichotomy may seem impossible,” said Shipp. “But this stock could be technically ‘overfished’ and still larger than ever in history. When you examine the history of the fishery and the dynamic habitat changes of the last century, a new perspective emerges that may embrace both viewpoints.”

Act I: Scene I – “The Beginning”

Surprisingly, a viable commercial snapper fishery existed in the mid-1800s. The majority of the snapper harvest centered around the sparse hard bottom south and east of Pensacola, Florida. By the late 1800s, commercial interest had grown and the harvest reached approximately 2 million pounds. Remember, the 2000 commercial harvest was slightly more than 4.5 million pounds and was captured in a matter of weeks.

Dr. Shipp cites a U.S. Fish Commission report from 1887 indicating reduced snapper populations in essentially virgin snapper grounds. At that time, snapper vessels were forced to venture farther due to bad catches. Limited localized overharvest was the only possible cause.

“We can see that within just a few years of the inception of the commercial red snapper fishery, localized overharvest had already become a problem, likely due to the limited habitat (and subsequent limited snapper population) off of Pensacola,” said Dr. Shipp. “The 1887 report indicates that boats explored almost the entire length of the Texas coast and found few snapper.”

Undoubtedly, snapper fishing techniques have improved since the 1880s. Sophisticated GPS equipment, color graphic bottom machines and comprehensive bottom structure maps have helped angling efforts. But commercial anglers of the 1880s were not exactly using carved bone hooks and hand-spun twine.

There is an old fishing adage that you can’t catch what isn’t there. If Dr. Shipp’s theory is correct, the snapper simply were not there in any great numbers. Red snapper are undeniably structure oriented, but is it possible that they could be better defined as structure dependent? Essentially, the amount of structure dictates the size of the population. We see this scenario play out in fisheries directly dependent on disappearing estuaries and muted forage-fish populations, but with snapper, it is possible that the inherent lack of deepwater Gulf habitat never facilitated a sizable snapper biomass.

Act II: Scene I – “The Alabama Experiment”

Sandwiched between the sprawling coastline of the Florida panhandle and the rich, river-fed estuary of Mississippi, the meager Alabama coastline boasts more than 20,000 artificial reefs. Historically void of snapper-friendly structure, Alabama began an aggressive reef deployment program in the 1980s. From tanks to trucks, artificial reefs created a red snapper field of dreams, and as the saying goes: Build it, and they will come.

“Currently, this area is the most productive area for the recreational harvest of red snapper in the entire Gulf,” said Shipp. “It produces about one third of the Gulf recreational harvest, though the area is less than 5 percent of the U.S. Gulf shelf bottom.”

Dr. Shipp’s data suggests that Gulf cyclons “redistribute and displace” snapper stocks. He points out the peculiar lack of redistribution that was reflected in the commercial catches of the 1880s. With so little structure, possibly there were not enough snapper to shuffle and compensate for the local harvest. Alabama’s snapper fishing shows the role of structure in stock biomass.

Act II: Scene II – “Rig Legs across the Water”

Since the mid-1940s, more than 4,000 oil and gas rigs have been erected in the western Gulf of Mexico. With roughly 16,000 rig legs wading across what was previously assessed as essentially void of snapper-sustaining structure, the nation’s clamor for fossil fuel seeded the now snapper-rich western Gulf.

“In the late 1880s, little if any snapper catches were from the western Gulf,” said Shipp. “Now more than 60 percent of the total harvest (recreational and commercial) is from that area.”

Act III: Scene I – “An Open Ending”

This final act brings the plot back to the contentious stage of the Gulf Council. With a 9.12 million pound total allowable catch (split roughly in half between the commercial and recreational user groups) that is being harvested more rapidly and with less effort, Gulf red snapper stocks must be increasing. Logically, the total biomass is larger than ever. The quandary comes in the fact that red snapper are still deemed “overfished” and are under an extensive and intensive management plan.

Even in this seemingly mismatched logic, we know some truths about red snapper.

The red snapper fishery needs more peer-reviewed science to accurately assess stock numbers. As in any contentious fishery, data is always in question. Statisticians and scientists labor to produce data that is inherently subject to criticism. In any recovering fishery, there is the question if current stock assessments accurately reflect the stock biomass.

Recent NMFS deepwater longline sets have revealed empirical data supporting the existence of a substrata of spawning red snapper previously not calculated into the stock assessment. Enhanced data will result in greater clarity for state and federal fisheries managers and should help reveal the actual state of red snapper stocks.

BRDs are working. Gear designers and scientists continue to apply technology and research to refine these vital conservation tools. By further advancing design variables, BRDs can increase the release of juvenile snapper and forage fish while decreasing incidental shrimp loss.

Gulf snapper anglers are now subject to a five-year program implemented by the Gulf Council. The Council is now able to further study and explore management options while maintaining a stable TAC and equally stable recreational regulations.

No single scientific study will likely crystallize a direction for Gulf red snapper management. If history is any indicator, the curtain call for this show isn’t likely to come anytime soon. The way things are going, this drama – with its exhaustive cast of characters and endless plot twists – could run longer than Cats.