Groups Seek Protection for Red Snapper

Three national environmental groups will petition federal officials today to list a type of Pacific red snapper as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

Bocaccio, one of several species sold in the grocery store as Pacific red snapper, was formerly the most abundant rockfish off Southern California. But intense overfishing, coupled with habitat loss, has decreased its California population by 98% since 1969, said Andrew Wetzler, an attorney with the Natural Resource Defense Council in Los Angeles.

If bocaccio is listed, it will be the first ocean fish protected under the Endangered Species Act. Fish that spawn in freshwater, such as salmon, have been listed, but previous attempts to declare marine fish in danger of extinction have failed.

A “threatened” designation could legally have huge effects on commercial and recreational fishing.

But environmentalists say if it isn’t done, the fish will disappear.

“We have [nearly] fished this species into extinction,” Wetzler said.

The NRDC, along with the Center for Marine Conservation and the Center for Biological Diversity, plan to file the petition to list the Southern and Central California populations with U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans today. Under the Endangered Species Act, a species can be considered in danger of extinction in a specific region. Bocaccio, which can live 40 years, inhabit rocky reefs on the continental shelf off the Pacific coastline. They range from Alaska to Mexico, but the population the activists are trying to list as threatened stretches from Northern California to the Mexican border.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, within the Department of Commerce, will probably make the final call.

The agency, which has already declared the species “overfished,” has 90 days to determine whether it has enough information, or if further study is warranted. A final decision is required within two years.

If the fish is listed as threatened, federal officials could ban all commercial and sportfishing for it. But fisheries officials and environmentalists agree that such a move is highly unlikely.

Wetzler said a ban on commercial harvesting is more likely, because sports fishermen wouldn’t know they had caught a bocaccio until they reeled it in. Even if the fish were tossed back, it probably would die because of swim bladders that can not rapidly deflate as they are reeled to the surface. The pressure change can kill the fish.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, an interstate group created by Congress that advises the federal government about fisheries on the West Coast, says commercial and recreational fishing of bocaccio is already limited under strict federal regulations, and the listing is not necessary. Jim Glock, a coordinator for the Portland, Ore.-based council, said annual quotas on catches, for instance, should be enough, “rather than have decisions made at some headquarters in D.C.”

Glock said the existing regulations, coupled with the quotas, mean the species will recover in an estimated 38 years.

California commercial fishermen are limited to 100 metric tons of bocaccio this year. In 1984, they caught 3,952 metric tons. One metric ton equals 2,200 pounds.

Recreational fishermen are limited to two each, for an expected total of 48 metric tons this year, he said.

But environmentalists say quotas fail to account for bycatch, fish that are unintentionally caught during commercial trawling for other species. Federal funding has been set aside for a pilot program that would place observers on commercial boats to measure bycatch.

Karen Garrison with the natural resources council said, “The Pacific council has made some changes we very strongly support, but they haven’t gone far enough to assure this fish is going to recover.”

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Fish Watch

Three environmental groups plan to petition the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to invoke the Endangered Species Act and designate bocaccio, or Pacific red snapper, as threatened in the waters off Southern and Central California.

Source: Natural Resources Defense Council