Call to Action: NOAA Amendment 59 Would Ban Bottom Fishing

Press Release

The Center for Sportfishing Policy (CSP) is calling on anglers, industry stakeholders and coastal communities to stand against Amendment 59, a heavy-handed proposal by NOAA Fisheries that would ban bottom-fishing for 55 species along Florida’s Atlantic coast for three months a year.

With just days before the outgoing administration left office, NOAA quietly proposed a sweeping closure of bottom-fishing, circumventing the normal fishery management process and blindsiding anglers.

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The unilateral “Secretarial Amendment” – prepared by NOAA Fisheries in response to a sue-and-settle agreement with environmentalists – bypasses the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and would shut down bottom-fishing from December through February in the Atlantic Ocean from south of Cape Canaveral to the Florida-Georgia line out 200 miles. NOAA admits red snapper is no longer overfished and should no longer be considered undergoing overfishing but contorts itself around flawed data to insist on this draconian closure.

“This is federal bureaucracy run amok – rushing through a backdoor rule in the final days of the Biden Administration,” said Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy.  “Anglers, businesses and state leaders are outraged. We need science-based fisheries management, not politically motivated, last-minute power plays.”

NOAA claims that Amendment 59 is necessary to “protect” a booming red snapper population from discard mortality — fish thrown back that may not survive catch-and-release. But this excuse relies on NOAA’s spitball estimates of discards that are not appropriate for management decisions. These estimates are derived from NOAA’s Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) data, which the agency confessed is overestimated by 30 - 40%.

The public has until March 17, 2025, to ask the incoming Commerce Secretary to scrap Amendment 59 before it devastates Florida’s $9.2 billion recreational fishing economy and the 88,000 jobs it supports.  NOAA needs to go back to the drawing board.

Our partners at the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) assembled a one-pager explaining why Amendment 59 is a bad deal for anglers and coastal businesses. Click here to read it. Take action now by submitting your public comment here.

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