Common Sense Solutions to Issues Facing Harvesting of Red Snapper for Recreational Fishermen

This article considers the modern regulation of the harvesting of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and discusses its effect on recreational fishermen, commercial fishermen, and the economies surrounding the Gulf. In addition, this article focuses on the Iron Idle Initiative’s impact on the population of red snapper in the Gulf. The purpose of the initiative is to remove non-producing or abandoned oil rigs. Discovering that the regulations dictating the allocation of the annual allowable catch of red snapper in the Gulf were based on figures obtained over thirty-five years ago, the author concludes that it is time to reevaluate regulations authorizing commercial fisherman fifty-one percent of the annual allowable catch and recreational fisherman only forty-nine percent. Finding that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act directs the federal government to maximize the net economic value from the use of a public resource, the author determines that the federal government is failing to honor that mandate, because current regulations promote the commercial harvesting of red snapper over recreational harvesting while data suggests that recreational fishermen have a significantly greater impact on the economies surrounding the Gulf. In addition, the author concludes that the Iron Idle Initiative results in the removal of the most thriving artificial reefs in the world, which could have a detrimental effect on the population of red snapper in the Gulf. The author calls for the elimination of the commercial harvesting of red snapper in the Gulf by designating the red snapper a gamefish, the extermination of the Iron Idle Initiative, and the release of control of the management of red snapper in the Gulf to the states whose boundaries are contiguous with the Gulf