Stephanie Murphy, John Rutherford secure federal red snapper count, hope to lengthen fishing season
Image via Rep. Stephanie Murphy's twitter account.

Stephanie Murphy and Red Snapper
Recent counts have shown more red snapper than expected.

Reps. Stephanie Murphy and John Rutherford have gotten clearance from the federal government to assess the status of red snapper in South Atlantic waters, with expectations authorities will ease the tightly restricted fishing season.

The Winter Park Democrat and Jacksonville Republican jointly announced Friday they’ve teamed up to secure $3.3 million in appropriations to fund an independent 30-month study that will help better understand the true stock of red snapper in the South Atlantic.

The Great Red Snapper Count of the South Atlantic is expected to begin shortly and will complement the recently completed Gulf of Mexico Great Red Snapper Count.

The results of the Gulf of Mexico count, released just this weekshowed there are three times as many red snapper in the Gulf as previously estimated.

The 2020 red snapper season for recreational fishing in federal waters of the South Atlantic was only four days in July.

“Fishing for red snapper is an especially fun and popular pastime here on the First Coast. Unfortunately, the red snapper season in the South Atlantic is too short and does not accurately reflect the amount of fish currently in the ocean,” Rutherford said in a news release issued by both members’ offices. “I am hopeful that this study will bring longer seasons and more opportunities for anglers to fish for red snapper.”

Murphy on Friday tweeted a photograph of her holding a red snapper.

“As an avid angler, I know fishing is a key part of the Florida way of life and few times of the year are as exciting as red snapper season,” Murphy said. “I’m proud to have worked on this successful bipartisan initiative to establish an accurate count of the red snapper population in the South Atlantic. As a kid, nothing beat fishing weekends with my dad so I’m hopeful this step will lead to a longer red snapper season for Florida families and boost economic activity in our state.”

The limits are set under the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s fisheries management plan. The council cautions that snapper grouper management is difficult because many of these species are slow growing, late maturing and long-lived, so rebuilding efforts for some species takes years to produce full recovery. The South Atlantic is defined as the waters off the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, to Key West.

In recent years the red snapper season has been extended mid-year, almost annually, sometimes by dozens of days, based on harvests and other factors.

The team in the South Atlantic will be led by William Patterson of the University of Florida.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].


One comment

  • Sonja Fitch

    March 28, 2021 at 6:12 am

    Lol. Rutherford cares more about red snapper than the folks he is supposed to serve and protect. sheriff Rutherford voted for the cop killers in the January 6 2021 insurrection! sheriff Rutherford voted against any help from the federal government for the folks he is supposed to serve and protect. Guess you gonna have to look like a RED snapper for sheriff Rutherford to notice YOU! Vote Democrat up and down ballot for the elections in 2022!

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories