To stop the menace of overfishing the authority has proposed the closure of a huge area of the ocean to bottom fishing off Georgia and Florida. The survey suggested that the species is still overfished as complain by both recreational and commercial fishermen.
Robert Boyles, deputy director of the Marine Resources Division for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and a fishery management council member, said that the authority is planning to put a ban on the harvest of the species. He also informed that 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.
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.
