Recreational angler preferences for, and potential effort responses to, different red snapper management approaches

Abstract

The Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery has been caught in a spiral of more restrictive regulations and disputed management. Current management measures have failed to reduce fishing mortality, owing in part to derby style fishing. A harvest tag system could potentially better limit fishing mortality without decreasing harvest seasons. In 2019/20 we surveyed 766 recreational anglers who fish in Florida with private boats to ascertain their preferences for regulation changes, and how they would alter their fishing effort if a harvest tag was implemented. Respondents were heterogeneous in terms of their preferences for harvest tags versus current management approaches, with most respondents preferring to maintain their current effort under the existing management approach of bag, size, and season limits. Respondents who preferred harvest tags indicated that they might increase or decrease fishing effort. Our findings suggest that more stringent regulations using current management approaches will not secure angler satisfaction or reduce fishing pressure on the red snapper stock. Harvest tags, though not preferred by all respondents, may allow regulators to better manage the number of anglers in the fishery and to rebuild the stock, although implementing this program will pose some challenges.