According to the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council it has already ordered that most grouper fish be left alone from Jan. 1-April 30, a blow to the local fishery as well as restaurants and their patrons. It is said that the latest proposal would shut down huge areas of the ocean to fishing to allow the red snapper population to restore itself. The council informed that red snapper are dangerously overfished and are at 3 percent of the level they were measured at in 1945. This action of the Council affects both recreational and commercial fishing, and could eventually affect tourism if people can’t come and catch the fish they want, or if they can’t dine on the local fresh-caught fish they expect.
Experts said that this will affect consumers badly as thousands and thousands and thousands of places that depend on the seafood,” from restaurants to stores and fuel sellers, will lose out along the coast from Virginia to Florida, the area covered by the new rules. Tom Swatzel, president of Capt. Dick’s Marina and one of South Carolina’s members of the fishery council, agrees with that analysis.
It is told that the latest shutdown could deal a final blow to commercial fishing in the area and the businesses surrounding it, such as Mershon’s, and the ready availability of local fish for restaurants. Swatzel and Mershon question whether a shutdown is warranted. Mershon has been advocating a trip-limit system, which would allocate a certain number of pounds per boat per trip, but the council has not indicated it will consider that, he said.
