Taking advantage of the final day of red snapper mini-season, and what the future may hold
At 10:30 a.m., Dr. Jason Rosenberg zoomed his 32-foot Contender, Painkiller, between the Murrells Inlet jetties, pulled back the throttles on the twin 300-horsepower Yamaha outboards as he approached the sea buoy and turned the wheel over to his son Zachary to navigate the trip to the offshore waters.
The date was Friday, July 17 and the occasion was the final day of the 2020 red snapper mini-season in the South Atlantic Region.
Tranquil seas with a light southeast breeze were in the offing, and we knew the ride out would be a quick one.
Soon, Zachary, with buddy Braeden Thomas at his side for the ride, had settled in at 52 mph and within one hour we had reached the destination, a pre-determined bottom spot in 100 feet of water.
When we arrived at the fishing zone, the feel of a fishing derby was in the air as there were at least 14 boats within sight, some 46 miles south-southeast of Murrells Inlet, all harvesting red snapper and other reef species on the final day of the mini-season.
Only during the mini-season can recreational fishermen harvest red snapper in the South Atlantic Region, and this was the final of only four days that anglers from the North Carolina-Virginia line southward to Key West, Fla., could take home one red snapper each with no minimum size limit.
Dr. Rosenberg had a spot that had produced red snapper a week earlier in mind to hit first, and soon the screen lit up with life reaching 20 feet up from the bottom.
Two anglers dropped down cigar minnows on double-hook bottom rigs, and then a few live pinfish. The first big bite came from a greater amberjack that offered me quite a battle, and was released.
After a few vermilion snapper under the 12-inch minimum size limit were released, we got the right bite. A red snapper in the 3- to 4-pound range came over the gunwale and was put on ice.
Dr. Rosenberg moved a little farther offshore to another spot, and this time he was the angler on a quality fish. After a quick, hard-fought tussle, Zachary Rosenberg netted a nice scamp grouper in the 12-14 pound range. The grouper hit a fresh strip cut from a bait fish.
Several more moves produced one more similar-size red snapper, along with assorted amberjack, vermilion snapper, red porgy and sharks.
We didn’t reach our goal of one red snapper each for the crew of four but there was plenty of action and plenty of table fare on ice for the ride home on a beautiful ocean.
Protecting the species
In 2009, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) determined the South Atlantic red snapper stock was overfished and undergoing overfishing. The fishery was closed in 2010 with a 35-year rebuilding plan put in place.
Ever since, there have been mini-seasons for the species ranging from three days to eight days except in 2010-11 and 2015-16 when no harvest was allowed in the South Atlantic Region.
Anglers have released red snapper for the last decade and watched and waited as the species’ stocks have clearly improved.
“There’s a lot of them out there,” said Mel Bell, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s vice-chairman and Director of S.C. DNR’s Office of Fisheries Management,. “It’s definitely better than it has been the last couple decades.”
Part of the reasoning behind the short mini-seasons in recent years is the region’s annual catch limit (ACL), which continues to be based on a red snapper stock assessment completed in 2016. A new stock assessment is in the works and will hopefully be completed in April, 2021.
The four-year old stock assessment results in an ACL that at least one member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) feels is too small.
“It’s a mediocre quota. It’s minuscule,” said Chris Conklin, owner of Seven Seas Seafood in Murrells Inlet and one of South Carolina’s representatives on the SAFMC.
The mini-season lasted for six days in 2017 and 2018, five days in 2019 before dwindling to four days in 2020. The downsizing of the mini-seasons is a result of anglers annually catching more pounds of fish than the ACL, or quota, allows, resulting in an overage to the next fishing year.
Both Conklin and Bell are hopeful the new stock assessment will show a much healthier stock of red snapper in the region, and potentially a larger ACL, or quota.
“The solution lies in the next assessment,” said Bell. “The fishermen, anybody knows it, there’s definitely more red snapper out there. We’re all just hoping we can get a good assessment back and you can basically end up with a larger ACL. A larger ACL means more fish available to be caught, which means a longer season perhaps. I’m very confident it should be better, but how much better is it going to be?”
One key component of the new stock assessment will be the age of the fish.
“We’re looking to see a good representation of older fish,” said Bell. “Your older, bigger fish have larger spawning capacity. I’ve seen all kinds of sizes out there (being caught). We’ll just see what turns up in the assessment.”
A week ago, a new requirement for anglers targeting snapper-grouper species requiring them to have a descending device on board and readily available for use went into effect.
The descending devices are designed to help snapper-grouper species survive the effects of barotrauma from being reeled up from deep water, particularly larger, older fish.
“We need to help those fish get back down to the bottom and make more red snapper,” said Bell. “We’re really excited about the use of the descending devices becoming part of the fishing culture.”
Time will tell whether the new stock assessment results in a larger quota and a longer red snapper mini-season in 2021. “I would imagine by June 2021 we’ll have some new council catch level recommendations in time for the 2021 season,” said Conklin. “We’re hoping to get several more days out of it, a larger quota, that’s what we’re hoping for.”