I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 470
To provide that the Secretary of Commerce shall not issue an interim or
final rule or Secretarial Amendment that includes an area or bottom
closure in the South Atlantic for species managed under the Fishery
Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic
Region until the South Atlantic Great Red Snapper Count study is
complete and the data related to that study is integrated into the stock
assessment.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. R
UTHERFORD(for himself, Mr. SOTO, Mr. BEANof Florida, Mr. CARTER
of Georgia, Ms. M
ACE, Mr. WEBSTERof Florida, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr.
D
ONALDS, Mr. SCOTTFRANKLINof Florida, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr. DUNN
of Florida, Ms. L
EEof Florida, Mr. MAST, Mr. GIMENEZ, Mr. FRY, Mr.
A
USTINSCOTTof Georgia, and Mrs. LUNA) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To provide that the Secretary of Commerce shall not issue
an interim or final rule or Secretarial Amendment that
includes an area or bottom closure in the South Atlantic
for species managed under the Fishery Management Plan
for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic
Region until the South Atlantic Great Red Snapper
Count study is complete and the data related to that
study is integrated into the stock assessment.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Red Snapper Act of 4
2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. CONDITIONS FOR RULES AND SECRETARIAL 6
AMENDMENTS RELATED TO CERTAIN AREA 7
CLOSURES. 8
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 9
(1) Fishing is a major economic driver in the 10
South Atlantic. In Florida alone, recreational an-11
glers provide $14,000,000,000 in economic output 12
and support 119,000 jobs. 13
(2) Red snapper is a highly prized and sought 14
after reef fish by both recreational and commercial 15
fishermen. 16
(3) The 6-day recreational red snapper season 17
in 2018 added $13,000,000 to the gross domestic 18
product of the South Atlantic region. 19
(4) Since 2010, fishery managers have success-20
fully been working to rebuild the red snapper stock 21
in the South Atlantic. There is currently record high 22
abundance and strong recruitment within the stock. 23
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•HR 470 IH
(5) This record abundance has led to increased 1
out-of-season encounters and discards which is driv-2
ing red snapper mortality. 3
(6) Despite these increased discards, it is the 4
overriding opinion of the South Atlantic Fishery 5
Management Council’s Snapper Grouper Advisory 6
Panel that based on members’ collective on-the-water 7
experience, the red snapper fishery is recovered. 8
(7) However, options for future consideration to 9
reduce out-of-season encounters and red snapper 10
mortalities include shorter seasons and broad area 11
closures for the snapper-grouper fishery in the South 12
Atlantic. 13
(8) The State of Florida is concerned with the 14
economic implications of area closures for the South 15
Atlantic snapper-grouper recreational fishery. 16
(9) $8,700,000 has been invested in inde-17
pendent survey data over the last 3 fiscal years, in-18
cluding $3,300,000 for the South Atlantic Great 19
Red Snapper Count to estimate the number of red 20
snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) in the South At-21
lantic waters from North Carolina to Florida. 22
(10) The National Marine Fisheries Service 23
should incorporate data from this survey into the 24
National Marine Fisheries Service stock assessments 25
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•HR 470 IH
as expeditiously as possible to better inform fishery 1
management decisions. 2
(b) C
ONDITION ONISSUANCE OFCERTAINRULE OR 3
S
ECRETARIALAMENDMENT.—The Secretary of Com-4
merce shall not issue an interim or final rule or a Secre-5
tarial Amendment that includes an area or bottom closure 6
in the South Atlantic for species managed under the Fish-7
ery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery 8
of the South Atlantic Region until— 9
(1) the South Atlantic Great Red Snapper 10
Count study is complete; and 11
(2) the data related to that study is integrated 12
into the first South Atlantic red snapper Southeast 13
Data, Assessment and Review stock assessment that 14
is carried out after the date of the enactment of this 15
section. 16
Æ
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