If you live on the Gulf Coast and enjoy saltwater fishing – or perhaps just eating seafood! – you’ve probably heard about red snapper, considered by many as the most iconic fish species in the Gulf.
But did you know that red snapper is just one member of a 31-species “complex” (group) known as Gulf reef fish?
This complex includes snappers (11 species), jacks (4 species), tilefishes (3 species), groupers (11 species), hogfish (1 species), and triggerfish (1 species). Together, these fishes represent some of the most commercially valuable and recreationally important species across the Gulf.
Gulf reef fish are managed collectively under NOAA Fisheries’ Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan (FMP), which was implemented in 1984 to rebuild declining reef fish stocks, conserve and increase reef fish habitats, and minimize conflicts between user groups. Although the original FMP is far from simplistic (it is 328 pages in length!), reef fish management has become much more intricate over the past 3+ decades.
As new research projects and stock assessments are completed, managers learn more about these species’ biology, ecology and stock status. With this information, they implement new management measures to ensure reef fish sustainability, resulting in a constantly evolving management framework.
Local ecological knowledge
Given the inherent complexity associated with reef fish management, it is critical that research findings and stock assessment results are communicated to stakeholders (fishermen) via concise, easy-to-understand materials. This unidirectional flow of information has been common practice for many years.
Recently, another important type of information transfer has emerged in theory and practice: the transfer of local ecological knowledge (LEK) from stakeholders to scientists and resource managers. Local ecological knowledge is defined as a person’s comprehensive understanding of the natural environment, generated through long-term interaction with the environment. With respect to reef fish fisheries, stakeholders gain LEK through years (or decades) on the water fishing for reef fish.
This LEK can significantly improve overall reef fish management processes and enable stakeholders to shape future research projects and management decisions.
Collaborative to develop reef fish programming
Recognizing the need for continued communication to stakeholders and novel incorporation of stakeholder insight into reef fish management, the National Sea Grant Office awarded $2.4 million in September 2021 to our team of Sea Grant fisheries extension specialists, university scientists and fisheries managers known as the Regional Reef Fish Collaborative. Led by Marcus Drymon, a marine fisheries specialist with Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, our collaborative will develop and implement extension and outreach programming related to reef fish research and management not only in the Gulf, but also in the U.S. South Atlantic and Caribbean due to the similarity of reef fish species across those regions.
We will communicate information about broad-scale, species-specific projects, such as the recently concluded Great Red Snapper Count in the Gulf, the Greater Amberjack Count in the Gulf and the South Atlantic Snapper Count to reef fish stakeholders. Additionally, annual surveys and advisory panel meetings involving reef fish stakeholders will enable us to identify reef fish research needs and communicate those needs to scientists and resource managers.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Regional Reef Fish Collaborative and the many reef fish-related products and programs offered by each Sea Grant program or region, please visit our website.
Meet the author
Amanda Jargowsky
Marine Fisheries Specialist
Amanda Jargowsky is a marine fisheries specialist with the MASGC-supported Marine Fisheries Ecology Program at the Mississippi State University Coastal Research and Extension Center. She conducted... Read more
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