Houston, TX - Convinced that current management efforts to recover red snapper stocks are destined to fail, Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) has petitioned the Secretary of Commerce to put emergency measures into effect to end the overfishing of red snapper by the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fleet.

"We are not going to get a recovery of the red snapper stock based on the existing management plans," said CCA Government Relations Committee Chairman Fred Miller. "It simply cannot be accomplished without directly and immediately addressing shrimp trawl bycatch. The Gulf Council is aware of this, but has generally chosen to ignore the problem. The next stock assessment will make it clear that this is a problem that cannot be ignored any longer."

Every year more than 80 percent of juvenile red snapper are caught and killed in shrimp trawls at an average size of 4 inches. Red snapper recovery plans to date have been predicated on bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) developed in the 1990s which held the promise of reducing bycatch by at least 40 percent. However, studies last spring by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) revealed that BRDs had achieved only a 12 percent reduction. Noncompliance by the shrimping industry was cited as the main reason for the BRDs' failure to achieve the target reduction.

Given bycatch reduction of 12 percent, even the complete elimination of the directed red snapper fishery, both commercial and recreational, would fail to generate a recovery of the stock within the next 100 years. CCA's petition is asking the Department of Commerce to exercise its authority to immediately implement a diverse and effective array of management tools, including bycatch quotas, area closures, seasonal closures and effort reduction measures, to achieve significant bycatch reduction on the order of 60-80 percent.

"Enough is enough. Recreational and commercial fishermen have adhered to their quotas, seasons and bag limits, and the shrimping industry has essentially wasted all those efforts," said David Cummins, CCA president. "We have done all that has been asked of us to rebuild this fishery. It's time for the shrimpers to accept some responsibility for the current situation."

CCA has been actively involved in the management of the red snapper fishery for a quarter century and litigated to force the shrimp fleet to install BRDs in 1998. CCA's demands that the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meet its own targets on red snapper bycatch in the shrimp trawl fishery over the past year have been ignored, leaving no option but to file the petition.

"This is not an action that we enter into lightly," said CCA Chairman Walter W. Fondren III. "CCA has tried to work with the Gulf Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service to address the obvious lack of progress in the recovery of red snapper. We are deeply concerned that there has been no response despite our requests. We feel we have no choice but to go to the Secretary and ask for emergency relief."