http://www.thestate.com/2011/01/04/1630232/no-fishing-for-red-snapper-offshore.html#storylink=omni_popular BY BO PETERSEN - bpetersen@postandcourier.com CHARLESTON — The anglers won, this round at least. But you still can't catch red snapper offshore and aren't likely to be able to catch the popular fish for at least a few more years. A proposed closure of a huge area of the ocean to bottom fishing off Georgia and Florida apparently has been derailed, after a new survey of red snapper numbers confirmed what recreational and commercial fishermen had been telling regulators — more fish are out there than previously thought. But the species is still overfished, the survey suggested. So current regulations prohibiting harvest or possession remain in place for the Atlantic off the Southeast. And they won't end soon, say members of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. The council votes on offshore regulations and submits them to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for approval. "I really don't see (ending the harvest ban) coming in the next couple of years," said Robert Boyles, deputy director of the Marine Resources Division for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and a fishery management council member. But the harvest ban should end sooner rather than later, he said. The survey suggested that current restrictions are re-establishing the snapper population, helped by a few good spawning years and the reduction of fishing pressure after the economic downturn, Boyles said. Regulators will know more when a follow-up survey is done in the next few years, he added. Not closing the bottom farther south makes for one important change in the waters off the Lowcountry. It means anglers in Georgia and Florida can continue bottom fishing there for grouper, triggerfish and more than 70 other species found where snapper are found. "They will be able to go and fish in their own backyards. We won't have to worry about them coming up here," said Mark Marhefka, a Shem Creek commercial bottom fisherman. Grouper and snapper offshore South Carolina are championed as the hooks of a $600 million per year saltwater fishing industry in the state. Before the recent survey, council scientists said the closure was needed to restore a depleted fishery, because throwing back accidental catches of red snapper kills large numbers of the deep-sea creatures. The new survey came after anglers railed at regulators in public hearing after public hearing, and several thousand anglers rallied in Washington earlier this year. They argued the closure would put even more people out of business and keep even pleasure boats off the water for no good reason. Commercial and recreational anglers disputed the earlier fish counts as a spotty sampling of a fishery that spans from North Carolina to the Florida Keys. They said the closure wasn't needed because the fish were rebounding, large numbers of commercial anglers here have hung up the nets as restrictions have increased and fewer recreational boats now are making the expensive trip offshore. Lifting the bottom closure still must be approved by NOAA, but Boyles said he expected that to happen. He called the move a good outcome for a lot of folks, and showed "we're not here to shut things down, put people out of business and disrupt recreational fishing." ================================================ Fishing reduces stress and gives you a break from our modern world where everything is going a million miles per hour 73 Check & Clear 6 LOC: 38-54-14.60N / 097-14-09.07W |
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