The new gag grouper regulations is said to be the beginning of the end for the fishermen who earns their livelihood by catching gag grouper. A Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council meeting in Tampa started with the discussion of the gag grouper population. It is told that the council, one of eight regional Fishery Management Councils, prepares plans that are supposed to manage fish resources in the gulf.
Andy Strelcheck, a fishery biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, informed that the gag population is in fairly bad shape. It is estimated that the population is 9 million pounds in the gulf. Steve Atran, a fisheries biologist with the management council, said the species is declared overfished if there are less than 20 million pounds in the gulf.
Atran said that scientist believe the fish was coming back, but a red tide event in 2004-05 decimated the population. Federal law of the state said that the population has to be rebuilt in 10 years, and that will mean a drastic change for commercial and recreational fishermen. This year, commercial and recreational fishermen were allowed to catch 3.4 million pounds of gag grouper.
It is told that the new regulations coupled with the recession and the new regulations on red snapper, which can be kept between June 1 through Aug. 14, could put dozens of charter boat captains out of business. It is observed that officials should give the new regulations time to work before enacting even tougher rules. The new regulations will mean that charter and commercial captains will go after more in-shore species of fish, causing them to be overfished.
