BigBendFishing.Net

I just heard that the limit is going to drop to 3 with 1 being a red.
I don't have any links and don't shoot the messinger.

Jump over to FS and see if there is a release. Nothing on CCA, or NMFS so far.

the word is a big meeting coming up soon on this, i will try and find you some more info..

I did a study on gulf fisheries last summer. Red grouper was one of the fish in my study and I found that they are being, or are currently overfished. I wouldn't be suprised.

I hardly ever post, browse often tho. I'm gonna get in the habit of posting more.

'Hate to see the change in the regs, but whatever. I'll don't need that much grouper in the freezer, anyway.
Welcome Stevo, and please do post regularly. We would like your opinions on limits and such from an educated slant..

Now that I think about it, historically around 80% of the red grouper harvest in Florida's gulf waters can be contributed to commercial fishermen, so I don't know what sort of impact new rec limits will have.

Is it a done deal, stiil not finding a press release.

qoutrage wrote:Welcome Stevo, and please do post regularly. We would like your opinions on limits and such from an educated slant..

Echo that. This board is (mostly) rational. Come teach us something.
I have nothing new on the regs, except to say that my third party "info" was 100% credible.

stevo wrote:I did a study on gulf fisheries last summer. Red grouper was one of the fish in my study and I found that they are being, or are currently overfished. I wouldn't be suprised.

I hardly ever post, browse often tho. I'm gonna get in the habit of posting more.

Stevo:

When you say you "did a study", does this mean you conducted original research in the field or did you review the literature?

Red grouper are the primary grouper harvested by commercial grouper fishermen in the Gulf, and those harvests account for the majority of red grouper taken. Generally, any regulations considered by the Federal Councils and NMFS favor commercial interests, even though the economics favor anglers in terms of costs and benefits. The feds also believe in "shared pain", so that if they do regulations to reduce take they normally cut both commercial and recreational limits or bags, although the two are hardly equivalent in impact on this fishery. So, if the commercials have to reduce their trip limits or seasons, even if they are the primary harvesters of red grouper, the feds will cut the recreational bag limits also, as a show of "fairness". This is what passes for fair play in the federal fisheries management arena.

I tell this story from direct experience in the process, as a regulator. Same story today, different verse.

EJ

I reviewed a lot of litterature prior to conducting my research. My analysis was conducted on data I gathered from NMFS. After reviewing litterature I decided to focus the study on 5 fish. GreaterAJ, Reddrum, red snapper, red grouper, and vermillion snapper.

Just so you know, I wasn't a marine bio student, I was getting my MS in Economics...I just wanted to do a project that was a bit more interesting to me, so I tried my hand in fisheries analysis.

If you want, EJ, I could email you a PDF version of it, it would be nice to know what someone with regulatory experience thinks about it. I'd like to get into fisheries management one day.