National Marine Fisheries Service
Southeast Region News Release
9721 Executive Center Drive, North
St. Petersburg, Florida  33702          

SERO NR90-050
     
Contact: Chris Smith               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                   August 21, 1998
                              

Through an emergency action, the National Marine Fisheries Service will make available 3.12 million pounds of reserve total allowable catch (TAC) to the commercial and recreational Gulf of Mexico red snapper fisheries, Fisheries Service Southeast Regional Administrator Andrew Kemmerer announced today.

The 3.12 million pound reserve is expected to generate revenues of $2.7 million in the red snapper commercial fishery. The fishery will open Sept. 1 for the first 15 days of each month until the commercial share of the total allowable catch is landed. The emergency action also will allow the recreational fishery to remain open until Sept. 30 when the projected red snapper recreational TAC is projected to be filled.

The emergency rule replaces an interim rule that had made the release of the 3.12 million pounds of red snapper TAC contingent on results of a research program to determine the effectiveness of bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) installed in shrimp trawl nets to reduce high levels of red snapper bycatch caught there. BRDs have been shown in tests to be effective in reducing red snapper losses during shrimp trawling operations.

Based on preliminary research results from the BRD field tests, the agency is confident that BRDs can produce the necessary reduction in red snapper bycatch within the next two years. This emergency rule averts unnecessary economic hardship in the red snapper fishery while ensuring that the red snapper rebuilding program under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act continues.

NMFS is an agency of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency conducts scientific research, marine fisheries management, trade and industry assistance, law enforcement, and protected species and habitat conservation.

This and other NMFS Southeast Regional news releases are available on the regional Internet homepage at http://caldera.sero.nmfs.gov.