Randy sent this story from the Corpus Caller Times

The good, the bad and the easy with red snapper
By David Sikes

Sunday, June 27, 2010
PORT ARANSAS — Head boat captains out of Port Aransas say red snapper in the gulf have become a blessing and a curse.
The shortest federal red snapper season in history continues through July 24, with a two-fish daily bag and a minimum length of 16 inches. Hurry and catch them -while you can.
Clinton Clark, a captain out of Deep Sea Headquarters, said he’s been planning his eight-hour trips around waters he knows will produce good numbers of snapper. That’s the easy part. Stringing two keeper snapper for everyone on a party boat hasn’t been much of a challenge, he said.
As is the habit of most good charter captains, Clark rotates pressure at his snapper spots. Whenever possible he plucks a few fish from a single spot each day then allows the spot to rest as long as possible before returning.
When or if a spot begins to yield undersized snapper, he abandons it until the juvenile population can reach legal size. During a 54-day season, he may not return to some of these waters until the following season.
But that’s OK. The Texas gulf is blessed with plenty of the pink fish, making it one of the most coveted offshore offerings sought by commercial fishermen, tourists and serious anglers alike, mostly for its table quality.
That snapper is not much of a sport fish doesn’t seem to detract from its popularity. Don’t get me wrong, red snapper — and most of its relatives — are powerful fighters. And they’re fun and easy to catch. Perhaps too easy.
Clark said he’s finding so many red snapper on rocks, rigs and wrecks within 30 miles of Port Aransas that they’ve become a nuisance. Figuring out a way to get a bait past schools of voracious snapper to catch other reef species is today’s challenge, Clark said.
Experienced anglers know that bigger baits, especially bigger live baits, usually boost the odds of catching amberjack and grouper even when red snapper are holding to the same structure. This might be tough to do during most head boat trips, when the average skill level of large groups generally is skewed toward the novice.
Snapper fishing in federal waters offshore of Texas hasn’t always been this easy. Six to eight years ago, I started hearing grumblings about keeper snapper being more difficult to find and complaints that big sow snapper were becoming more and more scarce. Overfishing was even worse off the coast of Florida and other gulf states, prompting federal fisheries managers to tighten regulations.
Seasons got shorter as annual allowable harvests were cut and eventually the two-fish limit went into effect.
And then recruitment of juvenile snapper got a helping hand from higher fuel prices and hurricanes, which has resulted in fewer small snapper being caught and killed in shrimp nets. Snapper stocks now are rebuilding faster than we are harvesting them, which is the definition of a sustainable fishery.
The snapper rebound has been so good that last year the recreational harvest exceeded federal preseason estimates by about 1.7 million pounds. The feds actually boosted the gulfwide snapper quota for this year. But because of last year’s overage and because we’re catching more and bigger fish, they shortened the season, knowing that we’d catch the quota quickly.
That’s the story behind this year’s unprecedented 54-day season.
Here’s some possible good news. At the recent Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Council meeting, which recommends policy changes to NOAA-Fisheries, they batted around the possibility of extending the federal snapper season because of the oil spill.
The thinking is that fewer red snapper will be caught in the gulf because portions of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida coasts are closed to fishing. Historically, somewhere between 20 percent and 40 percent of the recreational annual quota of snapper is harvested from waters that now are off limits to fishing because of the oil spill.
The drop in effort could mean the gulf’s total allowable catch for the year might not be reached during the short season. So the Gulf Council might recommend tacking on some fishing days in September or October to offset the harvest deficit. I wouldn’t count on it though. Insiders tell me this plan is unlikely to pass. Too many unknowns surrounding the oil spill’s effect on the fishery.
For recreational operations, such as charters and head boats, the oil spill will impose grave financial hardship. But the commercial red snapper fleet in those areas have an escape, thanks to an individual quota system adopted several years ago.
Commercial snapper outfits still are restricted to an annual catch total for the gulf. But instead of allowing commercial fishermen to rush into the gulf at the season’s start to harvest unrestricted until they reach this quota, the feds now have assigned quota shares to each commercial operator and done away with seasons.
So today’s commercial fishermen can harvest snapper when the weather is good, when the market price is high or when they feel like it, as long as they don’t exceed their personal allotment. Of course this requires good record keeping, which always results in better management.
And if a commercial operator doesn’t feel like harvesting their quota for whatever reason, they simply could lease all or some of their shares to another fisherman and still make money. So an Alabama fisherman faced with the oil-spill closure in his home waters could salvage his season by leasing his red snapper shares to a Texas fisherman.
About the only down side I see in this system would be the possibility of overfishing in certain open waters of the gulf. But I’m sure the feds could create a regulation for that too.
The for-hire vessels in the gulf could benefit from a similar system. And at the same time, the feds would be collecting the elusive recreational harvest data, which is sorely lacking in today’s inadequate and much disputed management system.
Plus, head boats and charter captains could target snapper when client demand is highest rather than when the feds tell them they can. Flexibility such as this in a fishery is good, as long as reasonable harvest management is maintained.
If the boats out of Port Aransas are allowed to harvest red snapper 54 days a year, what difference would it make whether they fish in spring, summer, winter or fall or whether they fish four or five days during each month of the year. If Florida wants a summer snapper season, give it to them. And if Texas wants to harvest some of its share during winter, why not?
The number of fish or pounds of fish removed from the gulf would remain the same.
If the feds are not willing to go that far then why not consider regional management that takes into account geographic stock variations. It’s a big wide gulf. Why manage it as a single population? Surely the red snapper in Florida don’t mix with the red snapper off Texas shores. It would make sense to create separate rules for separate stocks.
There is optimism among insiders that federal regulators are more receptive than ever to reasonable change. But exactly what red snapper management will look like in the future is anybody’s guess. One thing seems certain, though. If stocks continue to climb, then restrictions should loosen.