Garner and Patterson: Fishing effort, catch, and discard rates of charter boats in the Gulf of Mexico 
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Figure 1 
Mean values of effort variables — distance from port, depth, number of 
fishermen, number of sites fished per trip, time fished per site, and 
percentage of natural reefs fished — from observed charter boat trips 
in the northern Gulf of Mexico during open and closed seasons for red 
snapper ( Lutjanus campechanus) in 2012 and 2013. Error bars indicate 
1 standard error of the mean. 
Differences in the species composition of the catch 
and discards for open and closed seasons were tested 
with permutational multivariate analysis of variance 
(PERMANOVA) in Primer 6 (PRIMER-E Ltd, Ivybridge, 
UK) with PERMANOVA+ (Anderson et al., 2008). The 
difference in TL and age among red snapper catch 
retained during open seasons, discarded during open 
seasons, or discarded during closed-seasons was tested 
with ANOVA, with differences among factor levels in- 
dicated by Tukey’s honestly significant difference test. 
Lastly, ANOVA models were computed to test the effect 
of hook size on TL of caught red snapper, as well as on 
FL among all fishes caught during charter boat trips 
with observers aboard; per regulation, all hooks were 
nonstainless steel circle hooks. Hook size categories 
were based on the measurement of hook front length, 
defined as the distance from hook point to initial bend 
back toward hook shank: small (<20 mm), medium (<20 
mm and >25 mm) and large (>25 mm). 
Results 
Observers collected data on 24 charter boat trips in 
2012 and on 30 trips in 2013; 32 trips occurred dur- 
ing red snapper open seasons and 22 trips occurred 
during closed seasons. Differences between open and 
closed seasons were observed for several param- 
eters of effort (Fig. 1). During closed seasons, the 
mean depth of sites fished was 28% greater (ANOVA, 
-P’l;262=24.0, P<0.001), trip duration increased by 31% 
(ANOVA, Fi ; 52=8.55, P=0.005), and the percentage of 
natural reefs fished increased nearly 3-fold (ANOVA, 
Fi ; 52=76.32, P<0.001), compared with values observed 
during open seasons. Mean distance from port (ANO- 
VA, Fi ; 259=1.70, P=0.193) and number of sites fished 
(ANOVA, Pi ; 52=0.297, P=0.588) were greater during 
closed-season trips than during open-season trips, but 
differences between seasons were not statically signifi- 
cant. The only effort parameter that decreased signifi- 
cantly during closed-season trips was the mean number 
of fishermen (ANOVA, Fi, 277=7.56, P=0.006), which de- 
creased by 11%. 
The 2 predominant fishing rigs used during observed 
trips were 1) a single, large hook (>9/0), fished with 
large bait attached to a long leader suspended in the 
water column (rig type I) or 2) multiple, small hooks 
fished with small, cut bait attached to short leaders 
fished at or near the bottom (rig type II). Rig type I 
was typically fished with large bait (-15-20 cm TL) 
that was dead or live (e.g., Atlantic mackerel [Scomber 
scombrus ], mackerel scad [Decapterus macarellus], or 
gulf menhaden [. Brevoortia patronus])', the choice to use 
large bait was intended to increase catch rates of rela- 
tively large (>500 mm TL) red snapper targeted dur- 
ing open seasons. Fishermen almost exclusively used 
rig type I during open seasons, until they filled their 
daily bag limit for red snapper. Fishermen would then 
switch to targeting other fishes with rig type II until 
that day’s trip time had expired; however, this fishing 
