# 2008 Snapper Season moved to June?



## elmerpud (Dec 31, 2007)

I heard that the Feds have moved snapper season to June 1, 08, and the state would make their decision by mid Jan.
Has anybody heard if this is true??


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## Nautical Son (Dec 31, 2007)

*Details to consider*

If you have license you need to attend one of the following meetings. 

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will conduct a series of public scoping meetings in February 2008. Scoping topics include: 

A proposed Comprehensive Allocation Amendment 

Upcoming changes to fishery management measures for species in the Snapper Grouper management complex 

Limited Access Privilege Programs 

Allocation of the South Atlantic commercial king mackerel quota 



These meetings will include opportunities for informal round table discussion with staff and local representatives from the Council as we travel throughout the southeast to bring you the latest information about fisheries issues and discuss your concerns. Then, go on record officially to let Council members know your opinions and recommendations. This is a unique opportunity – don’t miss your chance to participate! 



2008 Scoping Meeting Dates and Location: 



February 4 – Coconut Grove, FL 

February 5 – Port Canaveral, FL 

February 6 – Brunswick, GA 

February 7 – New Bern, NC 

February 20 – Charleston, SC


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## Parker Phoenix (Jan 1, 2008)

If you listen to the Feds you would think that the snapper and grouper populations are are in dire straights. I disagree with them.


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## captbrian (Jan 1, 2008)

june 1 is opening day for the gulf in federal waters.  no word on final say from sate follks.  limit will be 2 per person, not including capt and crew on 'for-hire' vessels.  

btw, the grouper population in the gulf is in dire need of some real management, however, there are more snapper now than there has ever been.


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## Parker Phoenix (Jan 2, 2008)

captbrian said:


> june 1 is opening day for the gulf in federal waters.  no word on final say from sate follks.  limit will be 2 per person, not including capt and crew on 'for-hire' vessels.
> 
> btw, the grouper population in the gulf is in dire need of some real management, however, there are more snapper now than there has ever been.



I rent covered boat storage in Steinhatchee from a fellow that is one of the members of a commitee working with the state of Florida on the grouper management issue. His name is Jim Zurbick. He told me that to expect a limit of three grouper to come out of this.

Steinhatchee does not have the pressure a lot of Florida has on the fish population. You fish for a living so you know what you see. It's a catch 22 situation, the fish may need protecting, but with a limit of three fish, it's gonna put a lot of charter captains out of business.


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## captbrian (Jan 2, 2008)

Parker Phoenix said:


> I rent covered boat storage in Steinhatchee from a fellow that is one of the members of a commitee working with the state of Florida on the grouper management issue. His name is Jim Zurbick. He told me that to expect a limit of three grouper to come out of this.
> 
> Steinhatchee does not have the pressure a lot of Florida has on the fish population. You fish for a living so you know what you see. It's a catch 22 situation, the fish may need protecting, but with a limit of three fish, it's gonna put a lot of charter captains out of business.



3 grouper per person is PLENTY, but it should have some details.  i would like to see it at 3 grouper per person- no more than 2 being red or gag, not including scamp.  i don't agree with the red grouper being 1 per person, but i don't want to see it going above 2 either.  scamp should have their own limit, 3 would be fine.  

as far as going out of business, the snapper regulations threaten us FAR more than the grouper, but we're still fighting it as best we can.


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## Parker Phoenix (Jan 3, 2008)

captbrian said:


> 3 grouper per person is PLENTY, but it should have some details.  i would like to see it at 3 grouper per person- no more than 2 being red or gag, not including scamp.  i don't agree with the red grouper being 1 per person, but i don't want to see it going above 2 either.  scamp should have their own limit, 3 would be fine.
> 
> as far as going out of business, the snapper regulations threaten us FAR more than the grouper, but we're still fighting it as best we can.



3 grouper in your or my eyes is plenty. I own my boat and go when I want, same with you. On the customer side of the coin folks are going to be reluctant to spend $1000 to $1200 for only three fish.

Granted there are other options such as combining a grouper trip with other species susch as AJ's,KingFish, grunts,bsb's, and such. the charter industry can survive. They are just going to have to retrain their customers.


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## captbrian (Jan 3, 2008)

Parker Phoenix said:


> 3 grouper in your or my eyes is plenty. I own my boat and go when I want, same with you. On the customer side of the coin folks are going to be reluctant to spend $1000 to $1200 for only three fish.
> 
> Granted there are other options such as combining a grouper trip with other species susch as AJ's,KingFish, grunts,bsb's, and such. the charter industry can survive. They are just going to have to retrain their customers.



we've been combining trips like that for years.  when we go on a bottom fishing trip, we are generally fishing for everything.  jacks (when in season), grouper, red snapper, black snapper, beeliners, triggers, flatlining for kings, high speed trolling for king/wahoo going to and from, etc.  

from a customer's standpoint, when they hear a 3 fish limit, in the case of grouper, or a 2 fish limit for snapper, most of them think those are the only fish they will catch, which isn't the case. it will take time to retrain our customer base, but i hope we can survive in the meantime.  heck, the limit on kings is 2/person, and the limit on amberjack is only 1/person, and it's been like that for years.  the customers that MUST catch a pickup truck load of fish is the customer that i don't care to take.  i'm in the entertainment business, and i like taking people to have  a good time.  we'll catch a little of this, little of that, one of these, and so on. at the end of the day, we're going to have a great time, and a cooler of fish. very rarely this past year did i catch the limit of 5/person of grouper.  we spread things out a little.  remember, i fish 180 days each season.


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## Parker Phoenix (Jan 4, 2008)

You hit the nail on the head, you are in the entertainment business. One of my best friends is a charter captain out of Steinhatchee, Capt. Brian Smith, he says the same thing.


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## Wild Turkey (Jan 4, 2008)

What it boils down to is;
The Govt group in charge of making recomendations is bought and paid for by the commercial fishermen.
The recreational fishermen and charter (for hire) fishermen are being cut to allow the commercial guys more tonage.

In reality the rec fishermen spend more money and provide a larger economical base than the commercial fishermen ever could. They are doing the wrong thing for the fish and economy with these changes. The commercial guys kill more fish to bycatch than we ever take home. But thats being swept under the rug.


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## XTREME HUNTER (Jan 4, 2008)

Parker Phoenix said:


> You hit the nail on the head, you are in the entertainment business. One of my best friends is a charter captain out of Steinhatchee, Capt. Brian Smith, he says the same thing.



What boat is he on? Just wondering


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## grouper sandwich (Jan 4, 2008)

It's looking like a June 1-Sept 30 season on red snapper in Gulf Federal waters.  From everything I've heard, expect the state of Florida to mirror those regs.  It stinks but it is what it is.  Attend the Gulf Council meetings and let your voice be heard because right now the only voices being heard are the longliners.  ************, they're even regulating the hook and line bandit guys off of the water.

http://myfwc.com/marine/Docs/Hot_Topics/HotSheetDECEMBER2007.pdf


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## Parker Phoenix (Jan 4, 2008)

XTREME HUNTER said:


> What boat is he on? Just wondering



Big Bend Charters, 32 foot Twin Vee, with two 225 Yammies, called the CatNap, docks at the SeaHag. www.bigbendcharters.com  877352FISH


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## Wild Turkey (Jan 4, 2008)

And the best part about it is;
We as tax payers pay their salary and for the ** fake studies they use to Fork us.


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## Parker Phoenix (Jan 4, 2008)

Wild Turkey said:


> What it boils down to is;
> The Govt group in charge of making recomendations is bought and paid for by the commercial fishermen.
> The recreational fishermen and charter (for hire) fishermen are being cut to allow the commercial guys more tonage.
> 
> In reality the rec fishermen spend more money and provide a larger economical base than the commercial fishermen ever could. They are doing the wrong thing for the fish and economy with these changes. The commercial guys kill more fish to bycatch than we ever take home. But thats being swept under the rug.




According to one of the board members I know, he told me that there are only 500 commercial long liners in the Gulf, and that weekenders and commercial charter captains catch a larger poundage of fish. I don't know how true that is but maybe some research could answer that question.

There is also a possibility that they could set limits by areas. For example Tampa has a larger number of recreational fishermen than say Keaton Beach and steinhatchee, so the Big bend area may have larger limits set. However if that was the case the chance of Tampa residents bringing their boats to Big Bend to fish in less restrictive waters is a good chance. In any case I don't see the limit being more than three grouper in any circumstance, where Tampa could have a limit of say two fish.

Also a lot of fish are killed that are released in deeper waters. Improper venting prior to release kills a lot of fish. Where shallow water grouper in the Big Bend area do not require venting.

There is also the practice of folks culling fish they have already caught in order to bring larger fish back to the hill. I have seen many a dead grouper and snapper in the Appalachecola area floating on the water because someone will catch a bigger fish than what is in the box, throw a smaller one back and keep the bigger one. yes, there are poachers on the water also.

There are a lot of if's involved. But you can bet the farm that a three fish limit is coming, and the long liners will be unaffected by it.


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## captbrian (Jan 4, 2008)

Wild Turkey said:


> What it boils down to is;
> The Govt group in charge of making recomendations is bought and paid for by the commercial fishermen.
> The recreational fishermen and charter (for hire) fishermen are being cut to allow the commercial guys more tonage.
> 
> In reality the rec fishermen spend more money and provide a larger economical base than the commercial fishermen ever could. They are doing the wrong thing for the fish and economy with these changes. The commercial guys kill more fish to bycatch than we ever take home. But thats being swept under the rug.



that's not 100% true.  this big push for new regs is being funded by environmentalists more than commercial fishermen.  believe it or not, when it comes to snapper, the commercial fishermen quota has been cut just like the recreational.  the reason for these new regulations is rediculous.  the govt. scientists is providing fatally flawed information the the national marine fisheries service leading them to believe that red snapper populations are in dire straits.  this is not the case.  when these scientists conduct their stock assessments (however you can do that accurately), they REFUSE to include any red snapper that are found on any artificial reef (probably 20,000+ in the gulf), any of the oil rigs in the western gulf, noting offshore of 30 miles and count NOTHING south of cape san blas, florida.  so when you take this number, which is very small in comparison to the actual population, then subtract the numbers of fish that are being caught, it looks like they are being overfished.   these scientists have ADMITTED these figures are 'fatally flawed', yet they continue to make knee-jerk regulations to keep the enviro's happy.  

as far as $$ into the economy, at the current quota, the commercial fleet can sell their share of the quota for about $12million, meanwhile, the recreational industry brings in over $8billion annually.


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## titlewave (Jan 11, 2008)

Parker Phoenix said:


> According to one of the board members I know, he told me that there are only 500 commercial long liners in the Gulf, and that weekenders and commercial charter captains catch a larger poundage of fish. I don't know how true that is but maybe some research could answer that question.
> 
> There is also a possibility that they could set limits by areas. For example Tampa has a larger number of recreational fishermen than say Keaton Beach and steinhatchee, so the Big bend area may have larger limits set. However if that was the case the chance of Tampa residents bringing their boats to Big Bend to fish in less restrictive waters is a good chance. In any case I don't see the limit being more than three grouper in any circumstance, where Tampa could have a limit of say two fish.
> 
> ...





That is the biggest lie ever ! the commercials dump more dead short groupers than the total rec catch , let alone all the ones they keep. The limits for the grouper long lines in tonnage are more than the rec total alotted . So how is it possible that we take more groupers when thier catch is weighted at the dock and proven , were teh rec catch is a best guess based on lisence sales. The whole thing stinks period! the wolves watching the lions watching the chicken coup my fiends. Since i have been fishing the gulf(1980) our limits have slowy been reduced to such low levels that its barely worth it to go fishing any more when you factor in the gas. Our only hope is to buy out all the comercials with a lisence buy out and keep the fishery to ourselfs. There has been many studies on the impact of rec fishing on the local economy. They have proven that recreational sportfishing , boats sales and tackle sale are worth 8-12 billion dollars a year. Then add up how much fish sales come from commercials out of just say florida and its wonder why they dont yank every commercial tag out there . Meaning commercial fishing supplies very few jobs, and 1 /1000th of the anual sales of the recreational sector. By reducing and or pushing the recreational fisherman out to protect the fish for the few people commercial fishing is a waste of a resources and a huge waste of tax dollars, not to mention a huge loss to the boat and tackle industry thaty supports hundreds of thousands of jobs instead of a couple thousand jobs. Reminds me of the last loggers, trying to cut down the last trees to save their job one more week....................................weak , just totally weak ! 

Now lets talk snapper , the most endangered fish in the gulf. If they wanted to save( if they need saved) is to ban shrimping in th egulf. They know for a fact that more snapper are killed on the decks of shrimp boats than all the commercials and rec's put together. Since the snapper season ended , we have caught more snapper than ever ? and bigger ones at that. In fact , you cant even get a bait down on most spots that the snapper have taken over. I wouldnt mind a year round season on snapper with a 2 per person limit , because i feel that more fish are killed by releasing them in the off season. Why not make it like the atlantic ( which seem to have very large snapper) at 2 fish per perosn , but year round so we have a fish to eat when they close every other season. If you ask me , they are slowly regulating us out till we give up and go leaving the whole ocean to the rappist (aka commercial fisherman)which is what they want . Very sad state of affairs for sure-


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