Spotted Seatrout Fishery
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GULF STATES MARINE FISHERIES COMMISSION Commissioners and Proxies Alabama proxy: John Roussel Riley Boykin Smith Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural P.O. Box 98000 Resources Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70898-9000 64 North Union Street Montgomery, Alabama 36130-1901 Warren Triche Louisiana House of Representatives proxy: Vernon Minton 100 Tauzin Lane Marine Resources Division Thibodaux, Louisiana 70301 P.O. Drawer 458 Gulf Shores, Alabama 36547 Frederic L. Miller P.O. Box 5098 Walter Penry Shreveport, Louisiana 71135-5098 Alabama House of Representatives 12040 County Road 54 Mississippi Daphne, Alabama 36526 Glenn H. Carpenter Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Chris Nelson 1141 Bayview Avenue, Suite 101 Bon Secour Fisheries, Inc. Biloxi, Mississippi 39530 P.O. Box 60 Bon Secour, Alabama 36511 proxy: William S. “Corky” Perret Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Florida 1141 Bayview Avenue, Suite 101 Allan L. Egbert Biloxi, Mississippi 39530 Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission 620 Meridian Street Billy Hewes Tallahassee, Florida 323299-1600 Mississippi Senate P.O. Box 2387 proxies: Roy Crabtree, Director Gulfport, Mississippi 39505 Division of Marine Resources Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission Walter J. Blessey 620 Meridian Street 1012 Beach Boulevard Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1600 Biloxi, Mississippi 39530 Virginia Vail Texas Division of Marine Resources Andrew Sansom Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission Texas Parks & Wildlife Department 620 Meridian Street 4200 Smith School Road Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1600 Austin, Texas 78744 Legislative Representative to be Appointed proxies: Hal Osburn & Mike Ray Texas Parks & Wildlife Department William W. Ward 4200 Smith School Road 2221 Corrine Street Austin, Texas 78744 Tampa, Florida 33605 J.E. “Buster” Brown Louisiana Texas Senate James H. Jenkins, Jr. P.O. Box 12068 Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Austin, Texas 78711 P.O. Box 98000 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70898-9000 L. Don Perkins 1319 Winrock Boulevard Houston, Texas 77057 THE SPOTTED SEATROUT FISHERY OF THE GULF OF MEXICO, UNITED STATES: A REGIONAL MANAGEMENT PLAN by: Harry Blanchet Mark Van Hoose Larry McEachron Bob Muller James Warren Joe Gill Terry Waldrop Jerald Waller Charles Adams Robert B. Ditton Dale Shively Steve VanderKooy edited by: Steve VanderKooy published by: GULF STATES MARINE FISHERIES COMMISSION P.O. Box 726 Ocean Springs, Mississippi 39566-0726 Publication Number 87 March 2001 A publication of the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission pursuant to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admini stration Award Numbers NA26FI0026-03 and NA56FI0085. This paper is funded by a grant from th e National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The views expressed herein are those o f the aut hor(s) an d do not n ecessarily reflect th e views of NOAA or any of its sub-agencies. GULF STATES MARINE FISHERIES COMMISSION Interjurisdictional Fisheries Management Program Spotted Seatrout Technical Task Force Mr. Harry Blanchet Mr. Joe Gill Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Ainsworth-MacAllan, Ltd. Fisheries 2730 Bienville Boulevard P.O. Box 98000 P.O. Box 535 Baton Rouge, LA 70898-9000 Ocean Springs, MS 39566 (504) 765-2889 (228) 872-1407 Mr. Mark Van Hoose Mr. Terry Waldrop Alabama Department of Conservation 4711 Kendal Avenue and Natural Resources Gulfport, MS 39507 P.O. Drawer 189 (228) 832-0911 Dauphin Island, AL 36528 (334) 861-2882 Major Jerald K. Waller Alabama Department of Conservation and Mr. Larry McEachron Natural Resources Texas Parks and Wildlife Department P.O. Box 189 702 Navigation Circle Dauphin Island, AL 36528 Rockport, TX 78382 (205) 861-2882 (361) 729-2328 Dr. Charles M. Adams Dr. Robert G. Muller Florida Sea Grant College Program Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation University of Florida Commission P.O. Box 110240 Florida M arine Research Institute Gainesville, FL 32611 100 Eighth Avenue, SE (352) 392-5054 St. Petersburg, FL 33701-5095 (813) 896-8626 Dr. Robert B. Ditton Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Mr. James Warren Texas A&M U niversity University of Southern Mississippi College Station, TX 77843-2258 Institute of Marine Science (409) 845-5777 Gulf Coast Research Laboratory P.O. Box 7000 Mr. Dale Shively Ocean Springs, MS 39566-7000 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (228) 875-4282 4200 Smith School Road Austin, TX 78744 (512) 389-4686 Staff Mr. Larry B. Simpson Executive Director Mr. Steven J. VanderKooy Mrs. Cynthia B. Yocom Program Coordinator Staff Assistant ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (GSMFC) would like to thank the Spotted Seatrout Technical Task Force (TTF) for their many hours of work and dedication in developing this spotted seatrout fishery management plan (FMP). Special thanks are extended to Dr. Richard Leard and Mr. Jim Duffy who served as IJF Program Coordinators in 1995-1996 and 1997, respectively, for their efforts and written contributions to this document. Thanks also go to Mr. Thomas Hults who served as the commercial representative on the TTF from 1996-1997. Additional thanks go to Nancy Brown-Peterson, Mike “Buck” Buchanan, Dr. Cindy Moncreiff, and Dr. Robin Overstreet who provided both their technical expertise as well as reviewed several sections of this plan. This spotted seatrout FMP borrowed heavily from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries management plan, “A biological and fisheries profile for Louisiana spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus” (Bourgeois et al. 1996). In addition, Section 4 [Description of the Habitat of the Stock(s) Comprising the Management Unit] relies upon information drawn from the United States Department of Commerce’s (USDOC) “Distribution and Abundance of Fishes and Invertebrates in Gulf of Mexico Estuaries Volume II: Species Life History Summaries” (Pattilo et al. 1997) and the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council’s (GMFMC) “Generic Amendment for Addressing Essential Fish Habitat Requirements” (GMFMC 1998). We recognize that these documents are excellent reviews of the literature regarding spotted seatrout in the Gulf of Mexico and wish to acknowledge the time and effort the authors invested. iii PREFACE The GSMFC was established by the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Compact under Public Law 81-66 approved May 19, 1949. Its charge was to promote the better management and utilization of marine resources in the Gulf of Mexico. The GSMFC is composed of three members from each of the five Gulf States. The head of the marine resource agency of each state is an ex officio member. The second is a member of the legislature. The third is a governor-appointed citizen with knowledge of or interest in marine fisheries. The offices of the chairman and vice chairman are rotated annually from state to state. The GSMFC is empowered to recommend to the governor and legislature of the respective states action on programs helpful to the management of marine fisheries; however, the states do not relinquish any of their rights or responsibilities in regulating their own fisheries by being members of the GSMFC. One of the most important functions of the GSMFC is to serve as a forum for the discussion of various problems and needs of marine management authorities, the commercial and recreational industries, researchers, and others. The GSMFC also plays a key role in the implementation of the Interjurisdictional Fisheries (IJF) Act. Paramount to this role are the GSMFC’s activities to develop and maintain regional FMPs for important Gulf species. The Spotted Seatrout FMP is a cooperative planning effort of the five Gulf States under the IJF Act. All members of the task force contributed by drafting individually-assigned sections. In addition, each contributed personal expertise to discussions that resulted in revisions and led to the final draft of the plan. The GSMFC made all necessaryarrangements for task force workshops. Under contract with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the GSMFC funded travel for state agency representatives and consultants other than federal employees. Throughout this document, metric equivalents are used where ever possible with the exception of the reporting of landings data and size limits which, by convention, are always reported in English units. A glossary of fisheries terms pertinent to this FMP is provided in Appendix 14.1. Recreational landings in this document are Type A and B1 and actually represent total harvest, as designated by the NMFS. Type A catch is fish that are brought back to the dock in a form that can be identified by trained interviewers and type B1 catch is fish that are used for bait, released dead, or filleted i.e., they are killed but identification is by individual anglers. Type B2 catch is fish that are released alive again, identification is by individual anglers and are excluded from the values in this FMP. The state of Mississippi has indicated that the reported recreational landings for several near- shore, estuarine species in the MRFSS survey are under-represented due to a sampling anomaly which reports some fish caught in “state waters” as caught in the “exclusive economic zone.” The problem was addressed and corrected for the 2000 MRFSS data; however, for the purposes of this iv FMP, the recreational landings reported in Section 6 reflect the total Mississippi landings for spotted seatrout from “all waters combined” not just state waters. Recreational spotted seatrout landings for Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana are reported