Enacting Management Strategies after the Implementation of Annual Catch Limits to Deep Water Snapper Fisheries

Deep-water snappers is one of the most important fisheries in Puerto Rican waters. However, this resource is managed under a data-poor situation, which has always limited the implementation of conservation actions with certainty. In fact, this species are worked under a snapper unit approach, combining two or more species.  This was a not a major problem until 2011, when the reported landings for Snapper Unit 2 (Queen and Cardinal Snappers) surpassed the established annual catch limit in the EEZ. Thus, for the first time in Puerto Rican fisheries, a three month reduction of the previous 12 month season was implemented during 2012.  To avoid subsequent overage, a special permit for Snapper Unit 2 species was put in place. This requirement was granted only to fishermen with a landing history (> 5 years) of at least 500 pounds annually and restricted fishing effort to a maximum of 120 trips per year per fisherman. Hence, in practice, the Snapper Unit 2 fishery is moving towards a limited entry scenario. We are currently in the process of accelerating the submission of landing reports to reflect the most updated harvest under the special permit scheme, instead of using information from the open-access years.