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CCA Takes Red Snapper Fight to Court E-mail
Houston, TX – Citing the government’s history of failure to restore red snapper populations in the Gulf of Mexico, Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) has filed a motion for summary judgment that asks U.S. District Court in Houston to order the National Marine Fisheries Service to establish significant regulations on shrimp trawl bycatch to recover Gulf red snapper stocks. The move by CCA brings the issue one step closer to a positive resolution for the proper conservation of Gulf red snapper.

“The history of the government’s action, or more accurately, inaction to protect red snapper is one of deadlines set and missed, problems identified but not rectified and agency indifference to the dire circumstances of Gulf red snapper,” said Fred Miller, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “This is a failure that has spanned more than two decades and it has to end.”

Red snapper populations remain at a mere fraction of their natural levels as a result of shrimp trawl bycatch, which catches and kills more than 80 percent of every year class of Gulf red snapper. CCA is challenging Amendment 22 to the Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan, which was adopted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) last year without bycatch reduction standards or regulations for the shrimp industry to prevent overfishing of red snapper.

“NMFS’s own studies indicate that red snapper stocks will not rebuild even by the year 2100 unless bycatch produced by shrimp trawls is reduced dramatically, yet Amendment 22 does nothing to curb the waste of the resource,” said David Cummins, CCA president. “CCA is committed to use any and all means available to force effective management of red snapper stocks. If that means a court battle, so be it.”

As part of its overall strategy to force the government to take action on bycatch, CCA last year petitioned the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to put emergency measures into effect to end the excessive bycatch of red snapper by the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fleet. That petition was denied shortly after the government published Amendment 22, despite almost 8,000 supporting comments from Gulf Coast CCA members.

CCA has been actively involved in the management of the red snapper fishery for a quarter century and litigated to force the shrimp fleet to install bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) in 1998. Originally estimated to reduce bycatch by 40 percent or more, a study last year by NMFS revealed that BRDs had achieved only a 12 percent reduction. Noncompliance by the shrimping industry was cited as the main reason for the BRDs’ failure to achieve the target reduction.

“Since 1988, the red snapper fishery has been identified by the government as severely overfished. Since then, recreational red snapper anglers have seen their seasons shortened and bag limits tightened, while the shrimp industry has largely escaped meaningful regulation,” said Pat Murray, CCA director of conservation. “The denial of the petition was yet another confirmation of the government’s refusal to live up to its responsibilities to properly conserve and manage this important species.”

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