According to NOAA Fisheries, the red grouper (Epinephelus morio) fishery in the Gulf is sustainably managed and responsibly harvested under U.S. regulations.
The species’ range extends from New England south to Florida and throughout the Gulf and Caribbean. Like other grouper species, red grouper are protogynous hermaphrodites: they begin their lives as females, and some transform into males when they reach the ages of 7-15.
Commercial fishermen must have a permit to fish, land or sell red grouper. Managers limit the number of available permits to control the number of fishermen harvesting red grouper. There are annual catch limits for red grouper for the commercial and recreational fisheries.
Commercial Landings
Figure 2 shows the commercial landings of red grouper from the Gulf Region. Since 2011, the Gulf states supplied 98.3 percent of the entire red grouper domestic landings averaging 5.8 million pounds and valued at $17.7 million annually. Florida West Coast is the largest producing state in the Gulf, supplying 98.3 percent of all domestically-caught red grouper and almost all of the landings in the Gulf region.
In 2016, the Gulf-wide commercial landings of red grouper reached 5.3 million pounds. This fish species was caught year-round with most of the landings occurring during the fall-spring months (Figure 3).
Economic Contributions
The economic contribution an industry makes locally, region-wide, nation-wide or globally is crucial information in making private investment decisions, formulating government policy, and developing research and extension programs for the fishing industry. The IMPLAN (http://implan.com/) software and the 2013 input-output data for the five Gulf states were used to estimate the economic contribution of commercial fishing to the Gulf regional economy in 2016. The economic analysis used sector 17 or commercial fishing of the 2013 IMPLAN input-output data.
The IMPLAN economic model estimates of the economic contributions regarding output or sales, employment or jobs, labor income, value added and tax revenues. The income, value-added and output contributions are expressed in dollars for the year specified by the user. Output or sales are the gross sales by businesses within the economic region affected by an activity. Labor income includes personal income including wages and salaries and proprietors’ income or income from self-employment. Employment contributions are expressed in terms of a mix of both full-time and part-time jobs. Value-added is the contribution made to the value of seafood products at each stage of harvesting, processing, and distribution.
The total economic contribution is the sum of direct, indirect and induced effects. The direct effects express the economic impacts in the sector in which the expenditure was initially made. Indirect effects result from changes in the economic activity of other industrial sectors which supply goods or services to the commercial fishing industry. Induced effects are the product of personal consumption expenditures by industry employees.
The red grouper commercial fishing industry generates annual tax revenues for the Gulf states and the U.S. federal government. About $2.1 million was estimated to have been paid by households and businesses in 2016 to the federal government as social insurance tax, tax on production and imports, corporate profit tax, and personal income tax. The Gulf states were expected to have collected taxes from households and businesses in 2016 amounting to $1.0 million as social insurance tax, tax on production and imports, corporate profits tax and personal tax.
Meet the author
Benedict C. Posadas, Ph.D.
Extension Research Professor of Economics
Since 1990, Ben Posadas has consistently developed and maintained the Mississippi State University Coastal Research and Extension Center’s (CREC) extension and research program in economics with... Read more
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