THE RED RETALIATION

When the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted to defy federal regulations on red snapper last month, many predicted a swift crackdown from the feds. On Wednesday, that’s exactly what they got.

According to a news release issued this week, the National Marine Fisheries Service said it will close the recreational red snapper fishery on Aug. 5, more than a month earlier than the Sept. 30 closure the agency had planned. The fishery will not reopen until June 1, 2009. NMFS has jurisdiction of the waters in the Gulf of Mexico past nine nautical miles from Florida’s shoreline.

The news release cites the decisions by Texas, which voted to keep its state waters open year-round and maintain a four-fish bag limit, and Florida as why the early closure was necessary.

“These incompatible regulations in state waters contributed to a recreational harvest that exceeded the recreational red snapper quota by approximately 1 million pounds in 2007,” the news release stated.

Mike Graef, captain of the Huntress, said the regulations are a direct and retaliatory response to the action taken by the state of Florida to protect its fishermen.

“The National Marine Fisheries and Dr. Roy Crabtree are playing God with a lot of people’s futures,” Graef said.

Crabtree, NMFS’ Southeast Regional Administrator, said federal law requires the agency to close down the fishery when the total allowable catch quotas have been reached — quotas set forth by management plans from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

“The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires NOAA Fisheries Service to specify a recreational red snapper quota in the Gulf of Mexico,” Crabtree said. “The act and the Gulf Council’s red snapper rebuilding plan requires us to close the recreational fishery when that quota is met.”

But Capt. Kelly Windes said the action taken by NMFS threatens the ability of states to govern themselves and may require a legal remedy to fix.

“It penalizes us for the state and their flexibility, and at first blush it appears to be a state sovereignty issue. It just stinks. This is likely going to end in litigation, and I would certainly be a proponent of that litigation,” Windes said. “This is a big ego trip and a demonstration of the arrogance of power that they could make a policy like this that affects the lives of millions of people. This goes past conservation; there’s something else going on here.”

Gulf fishermen could already be working their way toward legal action against NMFS for the way it has managed the red snapper fishery.

Captain Bob Zales of Panama City notified Crabtree that he intends to request a congressional investigation into the management of red snapper in federal waters.

“The actions taken by you and your agency to severely reduce the red snapper recreational fishery, although based on your interpretation of the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and its arbitrary date of 2010 to end overfishing, has caused severe emotional and economic hardship to individuals and communities across the Gulf of Mexico,” Zales wrote.

Captain Mike Eller said the NMFS action is a jab at the fishermen and regulators of Florida who’ve decided to manage the snapper fishery their own way and not rely on a management system they believe to be broken.

“This is a direct, pointed and targeted attack at the fishermen,” Eller said. “The NMFS is out of control.”

Destin Mayor Craig Barker has spoken out against regulations at meetings of the FWC as well as the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. Barker said the early closure doesn’t do much to repair the damaged relationship between fishermen and regulators.

“It’s just one hit after another. There seems to be a major disconnect between the scientists defending the methodology and the anecdotal observations from the captains,” Barker said.