1999 

 OUR LIVING OCEANS 



Landings 

 (x 1,000 t) 



Total landings 



/*,! 



Red drum 



recruitment 



index 



Commercial 



- 03 



- 02 



I I I I L_ 



74 75 76 77 78 79 



Figure 9-1 



Southeast Atlantic and Gulf 

 of Mexico groundfish and 

 red drum landings, 1970-96, 

 in metric tons (t). 



81 82 83 84 85 86 87 



Year 



90 91 92 93 94 95 96 



1 953. This increase tor the most part restihed trom 

 a demand tor sciaenids as raw material in the pro- 

 duction ot canned pet toods, ot which about 76% 

 were Atlantic croaker and sand and silver seatrout. 

 Commercial landings of red drum increased 

 rapidly in the mid 1980's when public popularity 

 and demand suddenly grew for a new seafood 

 preparation called blackened redfish. To supply this 

 demand, a red drum purse-seine fishery evolved 

 in the Gulf of Mexico, primarily targeting the off- 

 shore adult spawning stock. Prior to this, most red 

 drum were harvested in nearshore state waters as 

 juveniles. But as the offshore purse-seine fishery 



Vij^-BiWWSA 



developed, it became clear that the schooling adults 

 were extremely vulnerable to overexploitation, thus 

 jeopardizing recruitment in subsequent years. Fish- 

 ery analyses showed that the sustainability ot the 

 long-term potential yield depended in a large p.iit 

 upon limiting the harvest of larger adult red drum 

 in the offshore waters as well as limiting the take 

 of smaller individuals in inshore waters both by 

 recreational and commercial fishermen (Goodyear 

 1989, 1996). 



These conservation measures were established 

 by a fishery management plan developed and 

 implemented first in the Gulf of Mexico and later 

 in the U.S. Atlantic. The first plan is the Fishery 

 Management Plan tor the Red Drum Fishery of 

 the'Ciulf of Mexico (administered by the Ciult of 

 Mexico Fishery Management Council), and the 

 second is the Atlantic C'oast Red I^rum Fishery 

 Management Plan (South Atlantic Fishery Man- 

 agement C'mincil). l^oth plans ban red drum tisli- 



Table9-1 



Productivity in metric tons 

 and status of Southeast Re- 

 gion drum and croaker fish- 

 eries resources. 



Total 



33,623 



31,420 



78,835 



'LTPY IS probably underestimated and CPY overestimated, althougti 

 potential production estimates are not available for some species 

 groups. It IS expected ttiat ttiey may be overexploited 



'1994-96 average 



-'Grey seatrout, Cynoscion regalis. is overexploited, 

 but ttie status of other species in this group is unl<nown 



1 36 



