2011 Red Snapper Season Report

[Hetland]

This year, recreational fishers were given a whopping seven weekends to fill their two fish per person daily quota of American Red Snapper. I'll save my monologue on the ridiculousness of these limits for another post.

My first trip out resulted in a hook & line charter ignoring our boat's dive flag, and motoring over the top of divers, where they dropped their lines right on top of myself and Recharge. XRay had to literally call the Coast Guard on these guys to get them to back off. The captain of the other boat said we were on public numbers, and could !@#$ off if we didn't want him spinning props over our heads.

Second trip was a weekday trip, and no one messed with us.

Third trip had a hook & line boat rolling over divers and ignoring our dive flag. The captain said that dive flags couldn't be used on a boat that was under power (we were free boating) and he could do whatever in the !@#$% he wanted. After I spewed a few paragraphs of rage-filled expletives (conservatively sprinkled with dive flag regs) they backed off and our divers surfaced. I seriously wanted to climb their boat and choke some dudes.

Last trip was in driving rain and 4ft seas. For some reason, we had the Gulf to ourselves

On average, I think bigger fish were shot this year compared to last (we had a split season last year because of the oil spill). Conditions ranged from 4ft of viz to 60+ depending on the day and distance from shore. Hopefully we'll have a longer season next year, or a bigger creel limit. I think part of the reason grouper are so sparse is because the snapper are eating up all of the resources that would normally be shared by other fish...

Anyway, mostly a boring report, but here are a few pics to spice things up:

Oh, and some shovelnose lobster found their way to my grill

 

[Native Spear-It]

Nice ARS,slippers and trigger! Congratulations!

I had some of the same experiences you described with "fishing boats", Dive safe!

 

[Tessunderwater]

That's a shame about the @$$ hole fisherman, I would have cut his lines . Great pics, the lobster look delicious.

 

[SaltyPirateBastard]

Those snapper look TASTY! Good job.

 

[MRXRAY]

I got just a few more trips than Hetland descibes above and I'll have to say the the Sanpper are NOT extinct! Even though we had a real short season, we did manage to haul quite a load of snapper this year and thanks to Hetland and my other dive buddies for a very memorable season!

 

[Recharge]

Snapper season 2011,had some great dives with some cool dive buddies, all in all Mr.X-RAY did win the top gun honors, with Hetland a very close second.The dive team had a new diver this season, ( Mr.AIR STREAM). Like to say enjoyed diving with you and we will get those honors back next year,and now on to the planning of the diving for the fall of the year.:zap:

 

[Hetland]

Snapper season 2011,had some great dives with some cool dive buddies, all in all Mr.X-RAY did win the top gun honors, with Hetland a very close second.The dive team had a new diver this season, ( Mr.AIR STREAM). Like to say enjoyed diving with you and we will get those honors back next year,and now on to the planning of the diving for the fall of the year.:zap:

I still think I had the single biggest fish, but otherwise, I don't think I came very close to XRay. He put a lot of meat in the freezer this year.

His new "snapper dance" (similar to the dancing that goes on in a Sir Mix-a-Lot video) brings the sow snapper in from all directions!

 

[Mopar]

I am glad nobody got hurt...well maybe the capt of the fishing boats would of not been bad. Those are some good looking fish. Why is the Snapper season shortened? Snapper is getting hard to get in the restaurants I eat at.

 

[Hetland]

I am glad nobody got hurt...well maybe the capt of the fishing boats would of not been bad. Those are some good looking fish. Why is the Snapper season shortened? Snapper is getting hard to get in the restaurants I eat at.

I think the commercial fishermen get 51% of the red snapper yearly "quota" of allowed fish, which is BS, but that's another thread.

The decision-makers have determined that the red snapper fishery in the gulf is no longer "overfished", but because people are catching bigger fish it takes less time for us to meet the yearly quota (in tons of fish landed). Thus, even though the fishery is better than it has been since the 1980's, we are allowed to keep the smallest number of fish per day, and have the shortest number of days to catch them in (commercial fishers are done when they hit their weight limit, I believe, and don't have a short season like the recreational fishers)

Recreational landings are determined by telemarketers who randomly call people, and ask what kind, how many, and how big the fish were that you caught this year. As we all know, {sarcasm font} A fisherman would never overstate the number, size, or frequency of his catches {/sarcasm font}. Allegedly, NOAA and NMFS are working on a way of improving data collection methods.

I said above, that the snapper population is healthier than it has been since the 1980's, and that's true, but in actuality, it's probably healthier than it has been since North America settled into it's current position and/or since the last ice age. "How can that be?" you ask. It's because of man-made reefs. Before we started dropping ships and bridge rubble into the Gulf, there was very, very little habitat for reef critters in our neck of the woods (mostly low limestone shelves that still exist, but in very turbid, or very deep water). Since we have added habitat, the fish now have more places to live, and therefore, more fish, so we probably have more red snapper than have ever existed in our part of the Gulf.

On another tangent, 80% of the seafood you eat in American restaurants came from another country. Think about that, it's cheaper to ship a catfish from Viet Nam to our country, and call it Mahi-Mahi, than it is to pull up a snapper and put it on a plate???? and I'd bet that the majority of the fish you order is mislabeled too. Personally, I've ordered grouper and snapper, and gotten something that was neither grouper or snapper put on my plate.

 

[2degrees]

it's cheaper to ship a catfish from Viet Nam to our country, and call it Mahi-Mahi, than it is to pull up a snapper and put it on a plate????

That I must agree with you. 30 gallons of gas at $4.00 and 2 fish. That is $60 per fish.