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'BETTER THAN NOTHING': Destin captain reacts after FWC serves up bonus Gulf red snapper season (UPDATED)
It’s not everything he could have wanted, but Destin charter boat captain Kelly Windes will take what he can get from the extended season for red snapper.
“It’ll be a help,” Windes said Friday. “I wasn’t crazy about the weekend business. I’d rather have the whole month of October … but it’s still better than nothing.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced Thursday that the red snapper season will be reopened for eight three-day weekends this fall beginning Oct. 1, according to a news release from the FWC. The season will end Nov. 21.
Windes said he already has started calling customers who have booked fishing trips on his boat, Sunrise, to share the news. Some of them have rescheduled their trips to a weekend to take advantage of the extended season, he said.
The red snapper is a favorite for tourists, and the extended season will be a blessing for local fishermen, Windes said.
“It’s a good thing,” he said.
The regular season for red snapper ran from June 1 to July 24. However, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill scared off many fishermen and the annual harvest quota was not met. That persuaded the FWC to reopen the season on weekends.
Red snapper seasons are typically determined by estimates of how many of the fish can be caught in a given period without affecting the population, the FWC news release said.
“This is just what the doctor ordered,” FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said in the release. “(The extended season) gives folks an extra 24 days to enjoy gulf red snapper fishing at a time when the weather is usually very nice and on weekends when most people are able to take off from work.”
Each fisherman will be allowed to keep two red snappers more than 16 inches every Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the season.
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REGS AT A GLANCE
The regular recreational harvest season for red snapper in all waters of the Gulf off Florida took place from June 1 until July 24 this year. This season was set based on projections of how many red snapper could be caught by recreational anglers without exceeding the annual harvest quota, which was established to help rebuild overfished stocks so that anglers can benefit from better red snapper fishing in the future.
However, recreational fishing effort for Gulf red snapper by private and charter boats was much less than anticipated because of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which resulted in fishing closures and cancelled fishing trips in federal and state waters off parts of Florida’s Gulf coast. Consequently, the established Gulf recreational red snapper quota was not met during the regular season, which means more fishing days can be opened this year.
Anglers will be able to keep the current Gulf daily recreational limit of two red snapper greater than 16 inches total length per person on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays beginning Oct. 1 and extending for eight consecutive weekends through Sunday, Nov. 21.
Updated information about red snapper management and regulations is available online at MyFWC.com/Rules (click on “Fishing – Saltwater”).
