NOAA pulls the trigger on triggerfish

Local fishermen have received yet another blow.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced that the gray triggerfish recreational harvest will remain closed in the Gulf of Mexico for all of 2017.

“It’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard,” said Capt. Allen Staples of the charter boat 100 Proof. “Just like red snapper, there are more triggerfish than I’ve ever seen."

In the last decade, the charter boat fishermen have seen their seasons cut short on red snapper, grouper and amberjack. Now, the federal regulators are cutting back on triggerfish.

The reason behind the cut, according to the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Region, is the gray triggerfish is currently overfished and the population is low and under a rebuilding plan that should expire at the end of 2017.

NOAA has estimated that recreational anglers went over their quota for triggerfish by 221,213 pounds during the 2016 recreational fishing season, which ended in May. Thus they have shut it down for 2017.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” said Capt. Jim Green of the party boat New Florida Girl’s American Spirit. “It’s apparent that the lag time in data is now affecting the triggerfish and amberjack seasons like it has with red snapper.

“We have a growing population of not just small fish but the bigger breeders also,” he added. “It’s making the average weight of the fish harvested go up and we are catching our quota quicker. ... The stock assessment has not caught up. They are creating seasons off data that is two to sometimes five years old.”

Nevertheless for those who fish the Gulf of Mexico there will be no triggerfish season in 2017.

“It’s really going to hurt us,” Staples said.

Staples explained that the charter fisherman have about five “staple” fish that people want to fish for — red snapper, amberjack, grouper, king mackerel and triggerfish.

“When you take one away it hurts. But when you take two or three away it kills us,” he said.

This past season, the federally permitted boats, which is the majority of the charter fishing fleet in Destin, had from June 1 to July 16 to land red snapper. The amberjack season was cut short at the end of May and captains were hoping it would reopen in August, but it didn’t.

Not only do the closures hurt the fisherman, but the other fish.

“It triples the pressure on the other fish,” Staples said.

He said you used to go fishing and catch a few of each species.

“But today it has become species specific. (Regulators) have created this cycle,” Staples said.

Capt. Mike Graef of the charter boat Huntress thinks the closure of triggerfish is just regulation “overkill.”

Graef agrees with Staples that there is no shortage of triggerfish in our local waters.

“You can’t get through them to get to the mingo,” Graef said.

He said within a week’s time, they threw back 35 triggers, while they were only able to catch five mingo.

“It’s totally over regulated,” Graef said.

Two years ago, the triggerfish was open year around. Then in 2015, harvest of the fish closed down in February and this year they closed it down in May.

Not only have the seasons changed but the size and bag limits have as well.

“We went from 10 fish to two per person and from 11 inches to 12 to 14 inches this past season,” Graef said.

Graef was happy with the two fish per person.

“Fishing was so easy. You knew you were going to get your 12 fish on a four-hour trip with only one or two stops,” Graef said. “But needless to say we’re not happy with the closure. They caught us off guard.”

Staples said with all the closures it makes it hard to book trips in advance.

“It’s almost impossible to plan a trip six months in advance because you don’t know what’s going to be open. Plus you have all the emergency closures to deal with. It’s not fair to the customer,” he said.

“The real tragedy is what it does to the customer. They are losing access to a resource. Slowly and surely they are getting choked out of the Gulf of Mexico,” Staple said.