Protest at Perdido Pass

Short snapper season angers locals, visitors

By Crystal Cole/Islander Editor
Posted 6/5/17

Early Sunday morning out at Perdido Pass, several dozen boats came out to stage a protest against the historically short federal red snapper season for recreational fishermen.

The protest began at …

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Protest at Perdido Pass

Short snapper season angers locals, visitors

Posted

Early Sunday morning out at Perdido Pass, several dozen boats came out to stage a protest against the historically short federal red snapper season for recreational fishermen.

The protest began at 5:30 a.m. with just a few vessels, but soon grew to at least 25 boats lining one side of the pass.

Boats from the Orange Beach Police Department, Alabama Marine Police and Coast Guard were also on hand to make sure other vessels could make through the pass, including several charter fishing boats that were still allowed to fish for the red snapper.

The protest was the brainchild of the Saltwater Finaddicts group on Facebook, which helped organize the event.

Orange Beach Councilman Jeff Boyd said he and other city leaders had considered staging a protest themselves, but chose to take what he called “the executive path” in dealing with the snapper season situation by sending a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.

“We just wanted our voice heard,” Boyd said. “We came to the agreement that we’d be better served going the executive path. We’ve had Congressman Byrne get some elected officials from Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana to sign his letter to the Secretary of Commerce. Luther Strange, our current senator, and Gov. Kay Ivey have both sent letters as well.”

Boyd said he was hopeful that some good news would be coming soon on the snapper season.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard some news shortly that at least something is going to change,” Boyd said. “There definitely has been forward motion. We feel pretty confident. We’re banging pots and making noise, but we’re doing it executively, talking to the guys who can actually control it.”

Tom Steber, president of the Alabama Charter Fishing Association, said this fight wasn’t just one for the recreational fishermen.

“The charter folks agree with this 100 percent,” Steber said. “We keep battling and battling and battling. You’re dealing with such poor data and collection of information and it’s killing us.

Steber said he understood what led the recreational fishermen to want to protest and he hoped that the federal government would return control of the waters to the state.

“I don’t blame them at all - how can you say you can only have three days?” Steber said. “It needs to be taken away from the federal government and put in the hands of the state.”

Locals weren’t the only people upset by the shortened season, however, as visitors from around the state and region were equally upset by the shortened number of days.

Opelika resident Marvin Skinner said coming down to the Alabama Gulf Coast for red snapper season has been a tradition for his family for many years, but the three day season announced earlier this year was a huge problem.

“It’s already hard enough to try to find time for me and my family to coordinate a schedule to be able to come down here and fish,” Skinner said. “To have to find a way to do that within a three day time window was almost impossible. Pair that with the questionable weather we had on some of the days, and it almost makes it not worth it for people to even try to come down and fish.”

Skinner agreed that more local control was needed.

“We need some sort of independent group to go out there and really determine the count,” Skinner said. “We’ve got more fish than over in Florida and some of those other states. It’s just clear that they’re not thinking about the little guy when they make calls like this.”