Red snapper fishing to close in state waters

Story from TPWD

On Nov. 15, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will close red snapper fishing in state waters. According to the department, red snapper fishing will reopen in January 2022 in state waters while federal water will remain closed until the summer. 

Under an agreement between TPWD and the National Marine Fisheries Service, TPWD can establish the opening and closing dates of the annual red snapper fishery in federal waters while also continuing to manage red snapper fishing in state water. As part of this agreement, however, Texas must close the entire fishery when the state’s allotted poundage is reached for the year. 

In 2019, Texas anglers took advantage of unusually calm offshore conditions in early June and caught red snapper at a higher rate than the year before. In August 2020, NMFS notified Texas that they believed Texas had exceeded the annual catch limit in 2019. Upon finalization and extensive review of all the data collected, it was determined that Texas exceeded its allotted poundage, by approximately 62,000 pounds.    

As a condition of the agreement, the red snapper pounds that exceeded the annual catch limit must be paid back. 

“Per our agreement with NMFS it is now the time for us to address those overages in order to preserve as many days as we can for red snapper fishing in 2022,” said Robin Riechers, TPWD’s Coastal Fisheries Division Director.