Preliminary decision in federal court pauses South Atlantic Red Snapper Exempted Fishing Permits

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Red Snapper South Atlantic Exempted Fishing Permits (EFP) for southeastern states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, are no longer in effect until further order from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The recreational harvest of Red Snapper in the South Atlantic remains closed.

Originally, NOAA issued a Red Snapper EFP to the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries and each of the three other southeastern states to explore whether states can collect near real-time data to monitor the Red Snapper recreational fishery.

For more information, go to the NOAA fisheries Southeast Region Fishery Bulletin here