Warm season wildlife food plots
April 7, 2015
Shrimpers beware of limits
April 7, 2015
Louisiana sportsmen who venture out for red snapper should be aware that while the state’s season on the species continues until further notice, they are at risk for committing federal violations.
“There are no snapper in state waters,” notes Cocodrie charter captain Stu Scheer, who does not himself fish for them, but knows a lot more than most people about what swims where in these parts.
Snapper tend to be found six to ten miles out and further than that.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced the state’s snapper season as open on March 20, declaring that fishing can be done seven days per week until further notice.
The bag and possession limit for the state-waters season is two fish per person at a 16-inch minimum total length.
Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham was given the authority in 2013 to personally oversee snapper seasons and daily harvest limits. And with the opening of this season he thanked fishermen for participating in a survey that allowed further opening of the dates.
“Thanks to our anglers participating in our recreational creel survey, LA Creel, and supporting a saltwater license fee increase, we are able to provide our anglers with additional snapper fishing opportunities that NOAA has denied them in years past”, Barham said.
The snapper dilemma, however, arises from two factors.
Snapper generally live far beyond the limit federal authorities recognize for Louisiana – which is three miles. Louisiana claims just under nine miles – three marine leagues – as part of an ongoing dispute with the feds over control of the fish. The federal season, which begins June 1, lasts for approximately nine days.
On average, Louisiana anglers land 14 percent of the gulf wide harvest. Projected at about 754,000 pounds. Last year’s nine day federal season saw 164,500 pounds landed.
The state’s own materials guiding fishermen note that federal authorities don’t recognize Louisiana’s nine-mile claim, and that anglers should use their own judgment when deciding when and how to fish.
But as experienced captains note, the disagreement between Louisiana and the feds mean that once an angler is within Louisiana’s three mile limit that is indeed recognized by the federal government, there are no authorities who will stop them and question why they have snapper even though the federal season is not open.
A NOAA Fisheries white paper on snapper answers the question of why fishing regulations are more restrictive, even as the red snapper population rebounds.
“More fish means people are catching them faster,” the guide explains. “Today,
recreational fishermen land fish at three times the rate they did in 2007—an estimated 18,000 fish per day now as compared to 6,000 fish per day before. At the same time, the fish are getting bigger. On average, each one weighs twice as much as before. Overall, for each day of the season, recreational fishermen land six times as many pounds of red snapper as they did before the population began to recover.”
Louisiana’s territorial claim resurrects an old dispute between the federal government and several of the gulf states.
It was resolved in 1960 by a U.S. Supreme Court decision, which mandated that the federal government could recognize a nine-mile limit in Florida and one in Texas, but not for the states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
The decision, which resulted from a suit concerned with mineral rights in the Gulf of Mexico, utilized some very old historical data.
Florida had a nine-mile claim prior to its admission as a state – or more specifically, its re-admission following the Civil War. Therefore, under the Supreme Court’s formula, the Sunshine State could continue its nine mile territorial claim, though only on the Gulf side.
Texas also has a history that favored its claim in the eyes of the court.
Prior to statehood, the Republic of Texas claimed a nine-mile limit, in part because of its troubles with Mexico.
Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, on the other hand, had no such claims.
Evidence was presented during the legal actions preceding the Supreme Court decision.
But the law of the land ended up being that the central Gulf states had no special right.
Efforts are ongoing to bring Louisiana’s desire for a federally recognized nine-mile limit to the floor of Congress, but so far that hasn’t happened.
So in the meantime anglers fishing for snapper should beware.
