Data Availability for Red Snapper in Gulf of Mexico and Southeastern U.S. Atlantic Ocean Waters

Abstract

Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus populations support (or have supported) important commercial and recreational fisheries in Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. Atlantic Ocean waters. Stock assessment results and related regulatory actions are contentious in both regions. We assessed the relative availability of information to support Red Snapper assessment and management between the two regions by performing a literature review and comparing the number of region-specific, Red Snapper–focused peer-reviewed publications. One hundred and ten publications (over the period 1982–2013) were identified in this search, with 94% focused on Gulf of Mexico waters. We then assessed the available information on juvenile (≤150 mm total length) Red Snapper. Twenty-eight peer-reviewed publications focused entirely or partially on juvenile Red Snapper in Gulf of Mexico waters. None documented the occurrence of juvenile Red Snapper in southeastern U.S. Atlantic Ocean waters. For the Gulf of Mexico, more than 50,000 records of juvenile Red Snapper were identified in a single trawl survey database. For southeastern U.S. Atlantic Ocean waters, a comprehensive search of fishery-independent survey databases (totaling >75,000 individual gear deployments and occurring across the range of habitats, depths, and seasons in which juvenile Red Snapper were collected in the Gulf of Mexico trawl survey) and institutional collections identified only 132 records of juvenile Red Snapper. These results highlight the need for additional information on Red Snapper in southeastern U.S. Atlantic Ocean waters and on the connectivity between Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. Atlantic Ocean Red Snapper populations to support Red Snapper population assessment and fishery management.

Received August 6, 2014; accepted November 13, 2014

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the following individuals and related institutions for providing access to fishery-independent survey data: Marcel Reichert, Jeannie Boylan, and Steve Arnott (South Carolina Department of Natural Resources [MARMAP, SEAMAP-SA, and Inshore Fisheries programs]); Robert Johnston, William Kramer, and Paul Kostovick (NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center); Katy West, Jason Rock, and Kevin Brown (North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries); Pat Geer (Georgia Department of Natural Resources); and Robert McMichael, Mandy Tyler-Jedlund, Ted Switzer, and Sean Keenan (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute). We thank Rob Robins (Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida) and Wayne Starnes (North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences) for access to archived Red Snapper samples, Mark Mueller (Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council) for cartography, Lisa Wood (NMFS, Southeast Fisheries Science Center) for assistance with the literature review, figure generation, and manuscript formatting, and Christina Schobernd (NMFS, Southeast Fisheries Science Center) for assistance with figure generation and database queries. We thank Nate Bacheler, Michael Burton, Aleta Hohn, Alex Chester, and several anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions on previous versions of this manuscript. R. Ryan Rindone and G. Todd Kellison contributed equally to this article. The authors and the organizations with which they are affiliated do not endorse or recommend any commercial products, processes, or services.