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27 January 2010
Posted in
General
Snook Foundation to Work with State on Data Collection
When Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Coastal Fisheries Division biologists announced they would scope changes to snook regulations this year, it marked the first time in nearly a decade-and-a-half the state has engaged the public on the subject of snook. The Snook Foundation opposed changes to Texas' current 24-28-inch reverse slot until there is a more complete picture of the life histories of Texas' three snook species.
Texas Regional Director Aaron Reed with a big TX Snook
AUSTIN, Texas (Jan. 27, 2010) – State biologists today recommended tabling a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department proposal to lower the minimum legal length for snook from 24 inches to 22 inches. The proposal, presented in scoping meetings in Dickinson, Corpus Christi and Port Isabel this month, met with stiff opposition from anglers.
Robin Riechers, science and policy director for TPWD’s Coastal Fisheries Division, told TPW commissioners that only four individuals attending the scoping meetings supported the change, while 32 people – including representatives of the Snook Foundation and the Lower Laguna Madre Fly Fishing Association – opposed the change. Many participants questioned the lack of available data on Texas snook.
“We want to work with these groups and talk with them and look at some future strategies for management of this snook fishery as well as any research opportunities that they may be able to help provide us with,” Riechers told commissioners.
The Snook Foundation, in consultation with the Florida Wildlife Commission and TPWD, already is working on an online angler logbook application that will allow anglers to record catch data that is useful to fisheries managers.
According to TPWD biologists, the proposal to change the slot was floated at the suggestion of a handful of South Texas anglers who wanted to keep fat snook. Fat snook, of which there are thought to be two species in Texas, rarely attain the 24-inch minimum legal length required to keep common snook, the largest snook species.
“It was pretty clear to everyone that TPWD did not have the data on either fat snook or common snook to make a solid decision about changing current management practices,” said Snook Foundation Lower Laguna Madre Regional Director Capt. Danno Wise. “I don’t think there was much support for the idea even within the department, to tell you the truth.”
Wise said that comments at the Jan. 14 scoping meeting in Port Isabel, which is at the heart of the Texas snook fishery, ran heavily toward implementing more restrictive regulations.
“We had a number of people who suggested that snook should be a catch-and-release-only fishery,”
“We had a number of people who suggested that snook should be a catch-and-release-only fishery,” he said. “I respect that view and the conservation ethic behind it – and in fact I largely practice catch-and-release for snook myself; but I think it’s important at this juncture to increase participation in the fishery, and to have good data before we make any changes in either direction regarding snook."
TPWD fisheries biologists have encountered just 727 snook in more than 30 years of fisheries independent (gill net and bag seine) sampling and more than 20 years of creel surveys. More than 230,000 pounds of snook were landed commercially in Port Isabel in 1928, and even Galveston Bay had a commercial fishery for snook in the late 19th century.
A series of mild winters, increasingly conservative bag and size limits imposed by TPWD, and a growing conservation ethic among anglers have allowed the little-understood but popular game fish species to thrive in recent years, and anglers from the Rio Grande to Port Aransas regularly report catches of large snook now.
“We have a fishery that once again is approaching world-class status here, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about Texas snook,” said Snook Foundation Texas State Director Aaron Reed. “Research from Florida indicates that Gulf and Atlantic stocks there are genetically distinct and have different life history characteristics. Fish from Cuba and Brazil also are unique.”
Snook are protandric hermaphrodites, meaning that all are born male and some will become females later in life. On Florida’s Gulf coast, snook stocks achieve a one male to one female (1M:1F) ratio at about 26 inches total length and 5-7 years of age. Previous research has suggested that snook in the Lower Laguna Madre of Texas may achieve the 1M:1F ratio at a greater total length, somewhere between 28 and 30 inches.
“We have much to learn about the life history of Texas snook and about the habitat and conditions they need to thrive here,”
“We have much to learn about the life history of Texas snook and about the habitat and conditions they need to thrive here,” Reed said. “We look forward to working with TPWD and with anglers and other stakeholders to help unravel some of these mysteries.”
Snook, challenging to catch, spectacular fighters when hooked and delicious when cooked, are considered a “destination species;” in Florida, the snook fishery is estimated to generate an annual economic impact of more than $1 billion in lower southwest Florida alone.
The current Texas state record common snook is 57.5 pounds, set Jan. 1, 1937, on Mustang Island by Louis Rawalt of Corpus Christi
