Every year millions of juvenile red snapper go belly up in the upper Gulf of Mexico. Not because of red tide or improper release techniques; shrimp trawls inflict the damage. Statistics indicate that despite closed seasons, commercial quotas, size and bag limits implemented to protect and preserve this important recreational and food fish, some 80 percent of red snapper of every year class are caught and killed in shrimp trawls.

Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) has filed suit over the government’s failure to protect red snapper. The sticking point is the Council’s “do nothing” requirements to eliminate this bykill in its recent Amendment 22 to the Gulf Reef Fish Plan, except post observers on commercial vessels and charterboats.

One CCA official said, “The government admitted a couple of key failures outlined in the petition, but it is not yet clear what they intend to do about the obvious problems in the rebuilding plan.”

CCA supports many aspects of the Gulf Council’s 30-year recovery plan but notes “a significant omission—specific, enforceable, bycatch reduction targets for the shrimp fleet. Even if the entire directed red snapper fishery--commercial and recreational—was eliminated, stocks could not recover under the current shrimp bycatch rates.”

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