APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
The fishery grounds now include waters off the South 
Atlantic coast of the United States, the Bahamas, the Gulf 
of Mexico, and the western Caribbean. 
Snapper and grouper are fished from depths of a few 
fathoms to about 140 fathoms. The 15- to 60 fathom-—depth 
range is the most heavily fished and the most productive. 
These areas lie generally beyond 12 miles from the coast- 
line. 
This fishery is considered under intensive use. The 
volume of production has declined since a peak commercial 
year in 1965 (25.8 million pounds). The size of the fish 
caught has been getting smaller; however, the recreational 
catch appears to be steadily increasing. An estimate of 
the recreational catch in 1970 was pegged at 82.7 million 
pounds. 
Also in the 5-year period 1971-75, Cuban vessels working 
off Florida harvested from 3.5 to 5 million pounds a year. 
The lower catch rates and smaller size of fish suggest 
that certain stocks of snapper and grouper may be in danger 
of overexploitation. Furthermore, traditional fishing 
grounds of United States commercial fishermen are diminish- 
ing as-foreign countries extend their jurisdictions. 
The reported declines in catch for each fishing craft 
may indicate real declines in snapper and grouper abundance, 
or U.S. commercial fishermen are obtaining smaller portions 
of the available stocks, or both. The U.S. snapper and 
grouper fishery, caught in the squeeze between costs and 
returns, is finding it difficult to operate successfully, 
particularly on distant fishing grounds. 
Most of the U.S. commercial catch is taken beyond 12 
miles off the U.S. coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Extending the 
fishery jurisdiction to 200 miles gives the United States 
exclusive control of the snapper-grouper grounds. 
Analyzing the multispecies snapper-grouper fishery is 
complicated by the lack of catch information from U.S com- 
mercial and recreational fishermen and foreign fishermen, 
who use different methods of capture. Catch and associated 
effort data are not generally available, and the species and 
size compositions of the catch (which includes up to 32 
species of snappers and groupers) are not known with any 
precision. 
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