New regulations could impact shrimping industry

New federal regulations designed to curb accidental snagging of red snapper in shrimp trawls passed this week, and local shrimpers, wholesalers and fishermen said Friday that the rules could deal a fatal blow to their businesses.

“Each time they come up with one new requirement, it’s one more nail in the coffin as far as the industry is concerned,” said Larry Hodgson, a shrimp wholesaler who serves on the board of Texas Shrimp Association.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council approved the new regulations, which govern the shrimp and red-snapper industries, in an attempt to address red snapper overfishing. Under the council’s new rules, shrimpers must cut the amount of “bycatch” — or other fish they inadvertently catch in their shrimping nets — by 74 percent from their average in past seasons.

In addition, the council reduced the recreational catch limit for red snapper from four to two fish per person and cut the overall catch limit for all commercial boats from 9.1 to 5 million per year.

Local shrimpers said they don’t think a bycatch reduction is necessary.

“There are fewer and fewer boats every year … that will take care of the bycatch issue,” said Carlton Reyes, a Brownsville shrimper and president of the Brownsville-Port Isabel Shrimp Producers Association.

The shrimp industry has struggled in the last decade because of rising fuel rates and increased competition from overseas producers and shrimp farms. In Brownsville and Port Isabel, the number of shrimp boats has dwindled from about 350 to 220 in the last decade, Reyes said.

Shrimpers already were required to reduce bycatch by 50 percent and must use devices that “exclude” red snapper from their nets. Combined with other pressures, having to adhere to stricter rules could push some shrimpers over the edge, Reyes said.

“It’s going to be pretty difficult on the industry,” Reyes said.

Recreational fishermen will feel the pinch also, especially in the western part of the Gulf, said Jim Smarr, Texas chairman for the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

“We depend on red snapper,” Smarr said. “The eastern Gulf has a multitude of other species they can fish for in the winter. We don’t.”

Closures and catch limits could hurt businesses that rely on recreational anglers, he said.

Some environmental groups were pleased with the new regulations, and others thought they were too restrictive on fishermen and shrimpers.

“With this plan, we’ve turned the corner with (red snapper) in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Chris Dorsett, Gulf of Mexico fish-conservation director for the Ocean Conservancy. “These are sustainable, science-based catch limits and caps on shrimp bycatch … by doing this, we’re going to enjoy better catches and more fishing opportunities for red snapper in the future.”

Although the rules established some “good” limits, an individually tailored approach for fishermen would be better, said Pam Baker, regional director for Environmental Defense’s oceans program.

“It’s not a good long-term management plan for communities and the fishing industry,” Baker said. “A move toward individual-fishing quotas would do that.”

The council already approved an individual fishing-quota system for commercial red snapper fishermen, with their quotas based on historical catches. That system went into effect in January.

Red snapper has been overfished since the 1980s, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, and still is a struggling species. The Gulf of Mexico council conducted a stock assessment in 2005 and determined that despite closures in the red snapper fishing season, the population is rapidly deteriorating.

“If you look at red snapper as a bank account, when you start spending the principal, you can’t live off the interest anymore,” Dorsett said. “You have to rebuild the principal.”

The Ocean Conservancy, the Gulf Restoration Network and Earthjustice took National Marine Fisheries Service to court over their red snapper concerns. The groups said the agency’s red snapper rebuilding plan didn’t go far enough, and a federal judge agreed, striking down the plan in March. The agency now must adopt a new, nationwide rebuilding plan within nine months.

The council’s new rules have been under consideration for nearly two years, with hearings held across the Gulf of Mexico.