Conservationists Demand Gulf Council Action
on Shrimp Bycatch of Red Snapper

 HOUSTON, TX – Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) expressed its frustration with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s management of red snapper in a letter demanding the Council meet its own targets on red snapper bycatch in the shrimp trawl fishery.

Every year more than 80 percent of juvenile red snapper are caught and killed in shrimp trawls at an average size of 4 inches. Bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) developed in the 1990s held the promise of reducing bycatch by at least 40 percent, but studies last spring by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) revealed that BRDs had achieved only a 12 percent reduction.

“Recreational and commercial fishermen have been kept to strict quotas, bag limits and short seasons in an effort to rebuild red snapper, yet it continues to lose ground,” said David Cummins, CCA President. “Faced with likely reductions in the total allowable catch, it is difficult for us to understand why the Council does not call for measures which will achieve the bycatch reductions.   Continuing down the same path is a non-starter with us.”

CCA is urging the Council to include options in an upcoming amendment to the Shrimp Fishery Management Plan that will allow for a diverse and effective array of management tools to focus on significant bycatch reduction. Specifically, CCA is calling for increased federal funding for research on more effective BRD technology, greater enforcement of BRD regulations and stiffer penalties for violators, a formal cap on bycatch backed up by improved protection for known red snapper nursery grounds, and a federal buyback program to reduce overcapitalization in the shrimp fishery.

CCA will also enhance its own existing efforts to rebuild red snapper stocks by organizing an artificial reef program in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to increase snapper habitat and by coordinating funding for science on recreational red snapper bycatch mortality.

 “Recreational and commercial fishermen have carried their share of the load to recover this fishery. They have seen their seasons and bag limits shrink time and again, and all for naught,” said Fred Miller, chairman of CCA’s Government Relations Committee. “It is now apparent that fiddling with our quotas and seasons is akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic as long as the Council virtually refuses to adequately implement measures to reduce waste in the shrimp fishery.  ”

 “It is the Council’s responsibility to use all the tools it has available to achieve the bycatch reductions and recover the stock,” Cummins said. “The measures in place today don’t work. It’s time to work on specific action steps that will fix the problem.”