NOAA Fisheries has announced the upcoming early closure of the recreational fishery for red snapper in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico to further reduce the 2008 federal recreational red snapper fishing season from 4 months (June 1 – September 30) to a little over 2 months (June 1 – August 5).
The revised season length is designed to ensure a reasonable probability the recreational fishery will not exceed its quota before the end of the fishing year.

The original 4-month season implemented earlier this year for federal waters was adequate to constrain the fishery to its quota only if the Gulf Coast states adopted compatible regulations. However, Florida rejected the federal 4-month season in favor of its current 6 ½ month season, and Texas maintained its year-round season and more lenient bag limit. Similar decisions in 2007 contributed to the recreational red snapper fishery exceeding its quota by at least one million pounds (30 percent). Allowing another recreational overage to occur in 2008 would violate both legal and judicial requirements to end continued overfishing in the red snapper fishery.

NOAA Fisheries Service continues working with Gulf Coast state fishery agencies to explain the implications of state management decisions on federal fisheries and to explore ways to best minimize the unavoidable impacts of needed harvest reductions on fishing communities.

The closure is effective 12:01 a.m., local time, August 5, 2008, through December 31, 2008, the end of the current fishing year. The recreational fishery will reopen on June 1, 2009, the beginning of the 2009 recreational fishing season.