Now they're closing Lanes

[Limitless]

This is getting crazy! The latest from the Gulf Council:

• Commercial and recreational harvest of lane snapper in Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) federal waters will close at 12:01 a.m., local time, on October 18, 2021.
• Commercial and recreational harvest will reopen at 12:01 a.m., local time, on January 1, 2022.

 

[notnksnemor]

I'm starting to wonder if this is the result of the reef fish surveys they send out.

I've gotten several and answer honestly, but it could be easily abused by groups that wish to shut down the fishery.

I was an outlaw fisherman in the 60's.
May have to revisit those times.

 

[Dustin Pate]

All this is by design I believe. These closures just put pressure on the next fish that you can keep. When it gets “out fished“ and they move on to the next.

 

[GTMODawg]

Totally ignorant of how commercial harvest works but it is my understanding that at least a sizable amount of commercial harvest of finned fish in Florida is now done by hook and line. I assume there is some sort of vessel permit which is very expensive and almost impossible to obtain due to the limited number issued. If this is so does an angler also need some sort of commercial license…or can a vessel with a permit have, say, 4 anglers aboard catching fish, with those anglers having no additional license requirements?

It looks like there 13.5 million pounds of red snapper harvested in 2016 in the gulf. 6.5 million of that was commercially harvested and estimated to have sold for around $26 Million or $4.50 a pound. Again, totally ignorant if the process, but it looks like a lot of work for very little money.