2 
Fishery Bulletin 11 7(1-2) 
Since 2007, the commercial sector of the fishery for red 
snapper has been managed under an individual fishing 
quota system with no overage on the sector quota. In 
2015, the recreational sector was divided into a char¬ 
ter and for-hire sector and a private recreational sec¬ 
tor with each sector sharing a percentage of the recre¬ 
ational annual catch limit (ACL). The for-hire sector 
is a closed fishery with a defined number of permits, 
and the length of the season is set each year on the 
basis of the sector’s share of the recreational quota and 
recent catch history. The private recreational sector is 
an open fishery, and the length of the season is based 
on the same inputs as the for-hire sector. Because of 
several factors, such as additional fishing days for the 
state season and large estimates of daily catches, the 
federal season for the private recreational sector has 
been reduced to a derby-style fishery. 
Increasingly restrictive regulations designed to limit 
catch of red snapper in the private recreational fish¬ 
ery, which has routinely exceeded its share of the ACL, 
have been enacted over the last decade, progressively 
shortening the season from 194 d in 2007 to 11 d in 
2016. Growing frustration by recreational anglers, who 
see clear signs of recovery of the stock as it rebuilds 
(higher catch per unit of effort and larger sized red 
snapper) yet face shorter federal seasons, has led to 
public questioning of the stock assessment and man¬ 
agement process. Public frustration rose to its highest 
level in 2017, when the National Marine Fisheries Ser¬ 
vice initially set the recreational season for red snap¬ 
per in federal waters at 3 d. Logical reasons existed for 
the shortened federal season in earlier federal regula¬ 
tions, including the existence of separate recreational 
fisheries in state regulated waters, which increased 
in 2015 from 4.8 to 14.5 km, or from 3 to 9 mi, from 
the shoreline. However, demands of anglers and policy 
makers to extend the season grew. An appeal by state 
management agencies from all 5 Gulf states to the sec¬ 
retary of the U.S. Department of Commerce resulted in 
the National Marine Fisheries Service setting a second 
season of 39 d for 2017 (Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, 
and federal holidays from 16 June through 4 Septem¬ 
ber). In exchange for the extended federal season, most 
of the Gulf states agreed to close state waters outside 
of the federal season for the remainder of 2017. Of 
relevance to this study is that anglers had little prior 
notice (2-3 d) of the second season and had no reason¬ 
able expectation a second season would be adopted for 
2017 at the time of the initial 3-d season. Hence, the 
2 seasons in 2017 provided a unique opportunity to as¬ 
sess angler effort during 2 seasons of different lengths. 
Materials and methods 
Study site 
We counted boat launches and anglers viewed in vid¬ 
eos recorded in 2012-2017 by cameras installed at 6 
public launch sites throughout coastal Alabama. We 
used these counts to quantify total daily effort of an¬ 
glers in the private recreational sector of the fishery 
for red snapper who used those monitored public boat 
launches. The 6 boat ramps are located at Bayou La 
Batre, Billy Goat Hole, Little Billy Goat Hole, Fort 
Morgan, Boggy Point, and Cotton Bayou. The private 
recreational community is made up of anglers who tow 
and launch boats at public boat launches and those 
who have private marina or dock access. In 2015, ap¬ 
proximately 60% of anglers were estimated to have 
used public boat launches (K. Anson, unpubl. data). 
Recreational anglers have a limited number of public 
boat launches that are used to launch vessels to fish 
for red snapper in offshore waters, and video cameras 
were installed at the majority of these public launches. 
Boaters leave these offshore boat launches to fish for 
reef-associated fishes, including red snapper, in the 
Alabama Artificial Reef Zone—a 2670 km 2 area encom¬ 
passing a network of thousands of artificial reefs and 
scattered natural reefs beginning 25 km south of the 
Alabama coast (Minton and Heath, 1998; Patterson et 
al., 2001). Because of their affinity for structured habi¬ 
tats, red snapper are relatively easy to target on arti¬ 
ficial and natural reef habitats (Gallaway et al., 2009; 
Powers et al., 2018). 
Angler and boat counts 
Since 2012, each of the 6 public boat launches has been 
monitored by MIC412 1 video cameras (Bosch Security 
Systems, Inc., Fairport, NY) that aid law enforcement 
activities. During the federal recreational fishery for 
red snapper, the video recordings are archived and 
available for analysis of angler effort. Powers and An¬ 
son (2016) demonstrated the efficacy of the analysis of 
these archived videos in estimating angler effort. We 
used the data available in Powers and Anson (2016) for 
the federal fishery for red snapper in 2012-2015 and 
collected additional data by using identical methods for 
the federal fishery seasons for red snapper in 2016 and 
2017. Season lengths varied each year: 40 d in 2012, 
28 d in 2013, 9 d in 2014, 10 d in 2015, 11 d in 2016, 
3 d in the short season of 2017, and 39 d in the long 
season of 2017. 
Analysis of video footage followed 1 of 2 protocols 
depending on season length: short (<11 d) and long 
(> 11 d) seasons. For both protocols, analysts counted 
boat launches and anglers per boat while viewing the 
archived videos for randomly chosen 5-min periods in 
each hour of footage recorded from 0500 to 2059 at each 
public boat ramp. For the short seasons (2014, 2015, 
2016, and the short season of 2017), counting was done 
every day of the federal season. For the long seasons 
(2012, 2013, and the long season of 2017), 20% of the 
days were selected at random for counting. Choosing 
days randomly does have the potential to bias our data 
1 Mention of trade names or commercial companies is 
for identification purposes only and does not imply en¬ 
dorsement by the National Marine Fisheries Service, 
NOAA. 
