Attorney General James D. “Buddy” Caldwell, on behalf of our Department, is urging a court to throw out federal regulatory guidelines for red snapper fishing that unfairly penalize private, recreational anglers.
Caldwell filed a brief in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana supporting the Coastal Conservation Association’s request to vacate the new guidelines. The Attorney General said that new regulations illegally reduce the quotas and season length for Louisiana’s recreational anglers while creating a windfall for the for-hire charter vessels that are much more prevalent in other Gulf Coast states.
“The red snapper fishery in the Gulf is vital to our Sportsman’s Paradise, and just as vital are our recreational anglers who promote the economy of our coastal communities,” Attorney General Caldwell said. “This needless federal regulation takes away nearly half of the total catch that would normally be available to common citizens and limits those citizens to essentially one weekend a year in which they can fish for red snapper in federal waters. The rule is also an unnecessary distraction to the State’s efforts to establish a regional management system, which would give the management and conservation authority back to the individual Gulf States. This uneven playing field will create crowding at the docks, tax our enforcement resources, and stifle ongoing conservation measures.”
LDWF Secretary Robert Barham said, “We applaud the efforts of Attorney General Caldwell to correct federal officials’ recent action that inequitably divides the recreational red snapper quota between private anglers and charter captains and restricts public access to this public resource. This is another one-size-fits-all management approach that does not consider the needs of local fishing communities. We are committed to finding flexible management alternatives for this fishery that are based in sound science, maximize fishing opportunities for all users, and can be adapted to fit Louisiana’s unique fisheries.”
According to Attorney General Caldwell’s brief, limiting the season and reducing quotas for red snapper will create unsafe “derby fishing” conditions during the short time-period of the season and require recreational anglers to invest more money with for-hire charters if they want to fish longer than the shortened federal season allows. During the 2015 federal red snapper season, the for-hire sector benefited from a 44-day season, while the private recreational sector season was only 10 days.
While for-hire charters are much more common in other Gulf Coast states, a recent study indicated that private recreational anglers accounted for 80 percent of the total catches in Louisiana. Though the state recognizes that private charters are an integral part of the Gulf economy, it’s also clear that the regulation disproportionately and negatively impacts efforts to preserve fishing opportunities for all Louisiana citizens.
The case is Coastal Conservation Association v. Penny S. Pritzker, U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
