Amberjack to close

[EddieJoe]

Just heard over the radio that the recreational amberjack harvest in federal GOM waters will close on March 21 for the rest of the year.

EJ


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[Flint River Pirate]

Seriously?


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[EddieJoe]

Yes. The radio was NOAA weather radio and I then looked at the GMFMC website to read the full press release. Apparently the Feds are closing 2017 based on recreational harvest "exceeding the 2016 quota", which they subtract from the following year. Quite sure we will still be able to "fish" aj fillets out of the ice at the fish market.

EJ


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[eatsleepfish]

Unbelievable. Do the people making these regulations ever spend any time on the water I wonder? The AJ fishery regs are getting about as ridiculous as the Federal Red Snapper. NOAA is either totally corrupt or has no idea what is going on in the Gulf of Mexico. I don't go and pull on AJs that much because it is hard on my back, but it is still fun to go get a work out on them a few times a year and perhaps throw one or two in the box.

Go to NOAA website and read the entire bulletin but here are a couple of doozies from it below. The pound numbers indicate recreational harvest in 2016 exceeded quota by close to 1M pounds. Does anyone on this website know how they come up with these numbers? Even if they are accurate, which I am certain they are not, if a NOAA biologist (is there such a thing???) would actually spend some time in the Gulf of Mexico studying the fishery it would be quite evident the AJ population is healthy and robust. NO WAY could a year round recreational limit of 1 fish per person harm the fishery. In fact, increasing the bag limit and lowering the size limit might be more in order than a closure. You can go to any big structure offshore and there are huge schools of AJs all around it.

* The 1,255,660 pound recreational quota for 2016 was exceeded and the adjusted 335,741 pound quota for 2017 will be reached by March 24, 2017.
•This closure is necessary to protect the greater amberjack population. The greater amberjack population is overfished (the population is too low) and limiting harvest is necessary for the population to recover.

[edif]

Wonder why its always the rec. fishermen having to suffer seems to me the commercial catch dosent get restricted maby if they closed those guys for 3 moths out of the year the bounce back would come a lot faster...just sayin...

[pangadave]

one more closure to justify having an offshore boat......... SMH

[doomtrpr_z71]

It's all model based, based on one paper from 2000, essentially the model makes higher populations look worse than lower ones due to the model figuring 30% mortality for catch and release fishing. The 2014 study couldn't even make determinations due to contradictions in the model. Not a very large sample size either and a lot of unexplained variability in their graphs, hard to trust a scientific publication with excel graphs.

[doomtrpr_z71]

The thing is according to their own data rec fisherman aren't the issue

[EddieJoe]

Not that one anglers anecdotal experience is typical for the gulf, but I haven't caught and kept a legal AJ for two seasons. And no one else I know has, either. A ton of sublegals that will hit almost anything, but that's it.

So, 1.6 million lbs of AJ harvested by anglers last year in the GOM? That's nuts.

EJ


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[EddieJoe]

I just did a back of the envelope calculation of about how many AJ would have to be caught to equal that harvest figure. Probably over 100,000. That's an absurd harvest figure.

EJ


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[MudDucker]

Fishing for Reef Donkeys closed .... another sign of the end times!