Has the IFQ Program affected the length of the season for red snapper fishing?
Before the IFQ, our seasons were getting shorter and shorter. We were as low as 52 days at one point. Today, our season is year round, and we have a share of fish we can count on fishing. This helps us choose the best times to fish, so that we can get a fair price and also avoid bad weather that brings with it unsafe fishing conditions. Has the program affected where you fish? The majority of the fishing from my fishing vessel June Sue since 2007 has been from Destin, Fla., to Mobile, Ala. Before 2007, the crew and I had to fish as far west as Galveston to find red snapper plentiful enough and easiest to harvest. Since the implementation of the IFQ, we have not had to fish past the southeast Louisiana/Mississippi line because we now have plenty of fish, in my opinion. Has the IFQ Program helped address the problem of fishermen catching fish they end up having to discard to meet catch regulations? We always fished in the reef fishery, and when we were done fishing red snapper, we’d fish
