View Single Post
Old 07-20-2022, 08:45 AM   #60
Ted Brodley
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 40
Re: The Collapse of the Gulf of Mexico Grouper Fishery

Quote:
Originally Posted by fishkilla View Post
Looks like FWC is starting the understand the Gag Grouper problem in the Gulf.

"Commissioners of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC, approved the measures during their Wednesday, July 13, meeting in Jacksonville.

FWC commissioners OK’d a final rule to set the recreational fishing season dates for gag grouper in Florida’s Gulf waters from Sept. 1 to Nov. 10, effective Jan. 1, 2023.

According to the FWC, the modification is intended to prevent overfishing, improve stock abundance, and help ensure future fishing opportunities. It’s also consistent with pending regulations in adjacent federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico."
Apparently so. Based on what we have seen in the northeastern gulf, this reaction is about 5 years late. The gag population bottomed out about 2016/2017 up here and has been making a steady recovery since then, although definitely not up to par with where the gag population was in the early 2000s. This huge reduction seems to be somewhat of an over-reaction, but I'd rather have a healthy fishery vs the alternative.

There are a lot of factors that go into the population - fishing pressure, environmental factors, recruitment of fish into adults, - much of it is out of human control and that is why we regularly see fish populations "cycle" up and down without changes to bag limits and seasons.

Hopefully this helps and we can get back to a longer season in a few years. I love me some gag grouper.
Ted Brodley is offline   Reply With Quote