37 
National Marine 
Spencer F. Baird f ’ W 
Fisheries Service 
Fishery Bulletin 
First U S Commissioner 1 S 
NOAA 
a* established in 1881 -<?. 
of Fisheries and founder M 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Multidecadal meta-analysis of reproductive 
parameters of female red snapper (Lutjanus 
campechanus) in the northern Gulf of Mexico 
Nancy J. Brown-Peterson (contact author) 1 
Christopher R. Peterson 2 
Gary R. Fitzhugh 3 
Email address for contact author: nancy.brown-peterson@usm.edu 
Abstract —Stocks of red snapper 
(Lutjanus campechanus) exhibited 
a dramatic decline in abundance in 
the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) 
between 1960 and 1991; manage¬ 
ment regulations implemented 
since 1991 have resulted in a mod¬ 
est recovery. To examine potential 
temporal and regional changes in 
reproductive parameters of female 
red snapper during recovery of the 
stock, we used meta-analytical mod¬ 
els to analyze data collected during 
1991-2017 throughout the north¬ 
eastern (Florida, Alabama, Missis¬ 
sippi) and northwestern (Louisiana 
and Texas) GOM; no data were 
available for 2003-2008. Peak red 
snapper spawning occurred from 
June through August throughout the 
time period, and a high probability 
(>75%) of spawning occurred during 
May from 1995 through 2017. The 
reproductive season was estimated 
to average 4.5 months from 1994 
through 2017. Increases in spawn¬ 
ing interval were estimated across 
time in the northwestern region 
(2.3-4.7 days between spawnings 
from 1992 through 2015) and for re¬ 
gions combined (2.4-2.9 days from 
1991 through 2017) but showed no 
changes in the northeastern region 
(2.3-2.4 days from 1991 through 
2017). Relative batch fecundity gen¬ 
erally decreased from 1991 through 
2017 for all models; however, this 
decrease was more notable in the 
northwestern GOM than in the 
northeastern GOM after 2013. Our 
analyses suggest evidence of repro¬ 
ductive compensation, particularly 
because the estimated changes in 
reproductive parameters were more 
pronounced in the northwestern 
GOM. 
Manuscript submitted 19 July 2018. 
Manuscript accepted 10 December 2018. 
Fish. Bull. 117:37-49 (2019). 
Online publication date: 19 December 2018. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.117.1.5 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
1 Center for Fisheries Research and Development 
School of Ocean Science and Engineering 
University of Southern Mississippi 
703 East Beach Dr. 
Ocean Springs, Mississippi 39564 
2 Department of Integrative Biology 
The University of Texas at Austin 
2415 Speedway #C0930 
Austin, Texas 7871 2 
3 Southeast Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service 
3500 Delwood Beach Rd. 
Panama City, Florida 32408 
Red snapper (Lutjanus campecha¬ 
nus) is one of the most popular rec¬ 
reational and commercial species 
throughout the northern Gulf of 
Mexico (GOM). This popularity has 
resulted in high fishing pressure on 
the species, resulting in dramatic de¬ 
clines in the stocks since the 1960s 
and reaching a low point in 1990 
(SEDAR 52, 2018). The first stock 
assessment for red snapper, conduct¬ 
ed in 1988, concluded that the stock 
was overfished and continues to be 
overfished (i.e., is undergoing “over¬ 
fishing”; Goodyear, 1988). A series of 
regulations have been implemented 
since that time, including bag limits, 
size limits, gear restrictions, limits 
on the length of the commercial and 
recreational fishing seasons, and the 
institution of an individual fishing 
quota (IFQ) program. In 2005, new, 
stricter regulations were put into 
place in an effort to end overfishing 
of red snapper by 2009 or 2010 (GM- 
FMC, 2007). The most recent stock 
assessment, completed in April 2018, 
concluded that red snapper stocks 
are in recovery and that they are not 
overfished and are not in the process 
of being overfished on a gulf-wide ba¬ 
sis (SEDAR 52, 2018). The stock is 
expected to continue to increase and 
should be within a few percentage 
points of the target spawning stock 
biomass (26%) by 2028 (SEDAR 52, 
2018). 
Knowledge of red snapper repro¬ 
ductive biology is important for un¬ 
derstanding both the decline and po¬ 
tential recovery of the species. How¬ 
ever, between 1965 and 2000 only 
13 publications were devoted to red 
snapper reproductive biology (0.37 
publications/year; Fig. 1), despite 
the dramatic decline in red snap¬ 
per stocks in the 1960s through the 
1990s. Since 2000, red snapper pub- 
