SC’s red snapper season on pause amid federal lawsuit

COLUMBIA — Anglers won’t be able to reel in red snappers off South Carolina’s coast this summer after a federal judge paused the state’s extended season.

The decision, which came in response to a lawsuit filed last month in Washington, D.C., reversed a federal agency’s approval to extend the state’s recreational fishing season from two days last year to 62 days this year. The state Department of Natural Resources touted that approval as a victory following years of pushing for longer seasons to catch the large, red fish.

SC anglers to get 2-month red snapper season instead of 2 days

South Carolina’s red snapper season was set to begin July 1.

Because the legal case won’t be resolved before then, state officials withdrew the application for a longer season and are instead working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to set dates for a red snapper season this fall, DNR said in a news release Friday.

The Southeastern Fisheries Association, which represents nearly 300 southeastern businesses, sued Secretary Howard Lutnick, arguing the U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees the permits, failed to consider the possibility of overfishing in violation of a 1976 conservation law.

The agency also approved incomplete permits, since the four coastal states that received extensions declined to say how many fish they expected anglers to bring in, the lawsuit argued. The other three are Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras agreed to put the extensions on pause while the case continues through the courts.

The four states argued the longer seasons would help boost business and spread out fishing over multiple days instead of encouraging a mad dash for a single weekend. But any damage done during the longer season would prove difficult to undo, if not permanent, Contreras wrote.

“Overfishing would undermine years of rebuilding efforts and would lead to additional restrictions affecting all participants in the South Atlantic fishery, including both commercial and recreational anglers,” he wrote May 21. “The conservation of public fishery resources and the prevention of irreversible environmental harm outweigh the temporary loss of additional recreational fishing days.”

Federal approval of the extended season hinged on a requirement that anglers report the fish they caught, to determine how many red snappers are swimming off the coast. Supporters argued that would create a comprehensive picture of the health of red snapper fisheries along the Atlantic coast.

“We are disappointed that anglers will not have the opportunity to participate in this project beginning July 1st,” natural resources director Tom Mullikin said in a statement. “However, the need for better data coupled with improved management tools has not changed. Reliable information is essential to ensure that future decisions are based on sound science and that anglers have the ability to directly provide accurate data through meaningful access to a healthy red snapper fishery.”

The Coastal Conservation League, a South Carolina-based nonprofit, supported the expanded season, since it would mean more data on the fish.

Dwindling numbers of red snapper led to the abbreviated seasons beginning in 2008. Some anglers said the population had rebounded and they should be able to fish for them over the course of two months, instead of cramming a season’s worth of fishing into two days.

National nonprofit Ocean Conservancy, which joined the lawsuit, said the number of fish hasn’t grown enough to support more days of fishing.

“Opening the red snapper season for two months — when last year it was two days — is fast-tracking the crash of this species,” said Meredith Moore, the nonprofit’s senior director of fish conservation, in a statement. “There’s just no way the stock can endure this level of fishing pressure so we can continue to fish for red snapper in the long term.”