DAVID SIKES/CALLER-TIMES Fort Worth angler Scott Brewer wrestles with a hefty snapper aboard the Gulf Eagle out of Deep Sea Headquarters.

SHARE DAVID SIKES/CALLER-TIMES Here is what 27 limits of red snapper looks like, along with 33 kingfish. DAVID SIKES/CALLER-TIMES Dusty Scoggins and his son, Wyatt, 6, both of Lorena with their first snapper of the morning. DAVID SIKES/CALLER-TIMES Jeff Wilson slings a pair of nice red snapper into one of the Gulf Eagle's ice chests. It took 27 anglers less than two hours to catch their limits of snapper, which weighed roughly 8-12 pounds each. DAVID SIKES/CALLER-TIMES Matthew Strawser of San Antonio stands back to watch a deckhand use a gaff to bring in his snapper. That's Corpus Christi fisherman Frank James in the background.

PORT ARANSAS — You have until July 16 to catch red snapper in federal waters, but only if you're fishing from a charter or party boat.

And the catching is easy, as the population continues to rebound.

The charter season, which involves fishing from any boat holding a federal reef-fishing permit, is 46 days this year. Local charter outfits and their customers are enjoying the extended opportunity, while the season has ended for anglers in private boats. Their season within the more snapper-abundant federal waters lasted 11 days.

These separate regulations were established by a rule change known as sector separation, which allowed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to split the gulf-wide recreational allocation of snapper between private-boat anglers and anglers who use charter or party boats to access the fishery.

The rule change was requested by a coalition of charter outfits in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. The rationale behind the request stems from a federal regulation that disallows anglers on for-hire vessels with a federal reef-fishing permit from fishing for snapper in state waters outside of the federal season.

For example, Texas recreational anglers who fish from private vessels may target red snapper 365 days a year in state waters, which extend nine nautical miles offshore. The daily snapper limit for Texas is four fish that measure at least 15 inches long. The federal red snapper bag limit is two fish with a 16-inch minimum length.

Because anglers aboard charter vessels may not take advantage of state seasons, for years they were restricted to targeting snapper only within the brief federal season. Each gulf state has opened up their state waters for private-boat snapper fishing during various time periods outside of the federal season.

Federal fisheries managers say snapper harvested during state seasons cuts into the gulf-wide snapper allocation set by NOAA, thus shortening the federally-mandated season for waters farther offshore.

These rules are forced to be in place by an act of Congress generally referred to as the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which is a law aimed at curbing overfishing and meant to rebuild depleted stocks such as snapper to a certain mandated level. Magnuson-Stevens Ac

For the sake of simplicity here is the gist of a very contentious debate: Many folks believe the red snapper population has reached or exceeded rebuilt status, while NOAA scientists disagree, saying the stock is nowhere near, but closing in on, its historic abundance.

In the nerdy world of fisheries management, it's all about reaching a sustainable level by balancing productivity with harvest. The optimum dynamic to shoot for would be to allow enough snapper to reach reproductive maturity so each adds to the population before being removed.

An overfished species such as red snapper is considered rebuilt when the population reaches a level that will allow the fish to be harvested continuously while the numbers maintain a sustainable level. In other words, optimum sustainability is reached when we remove about as many fish as the population can replace.

For red snapper, federal fisheries managers say the population has rebounded to about 63 percent of its ideal spawning population. If this is accurate, the spawning population should reach it optimum level by or before 2032.

Responsible anglers can help their own conservation cause by avoiding spots where undersized snapper concentrate. Unlike bay fishing where we might catch and release a dozen small trout before hooking a keeper, this practice is really not a good idea in the gulf where many release fish die when they rise too quickly from deepwater.

I applaud Capt. Kevin Haller on the Gulf Eagle out of Deep Sea Headquarters for announcing at our first stop Monday there would be no culling on his boat. Culling is the practice of releasing a stunned and bloated legal-size fish — this amounts to hand feeding sharks and dolphins — just to add a pound or two to your stringer. Basically this involves killing two or more snapper for each fish kept.

Within two hours I watched 27 anglers catch 54 snapper. I did not see a single undersized fish. Nearly every one weighed 8-12 pounds, which are what I refer to as teenagers. Red snapper can live for more than 50 years and grow to about 50 pounds.

Ten or 15 years ago, anglers routinely celebrated catching a snapper that weighed 20-25 pounds or more. These mature fish were referred to as sows for their trophy quality. Today, the measure of a sow has been reduced to 15-18 pounds and rarely are bigger fish landed around here.

Mostly young fish, generally 5-8 years old, are being brought to the Port Aransas docks this season, according to Ken Jones, the federal data collector I spoke with at the dock Monday. Bigger fish produce more eggs. Jones was there to weigh and measure most of our snapper for the record. My two fish weighed 26 pounds combined, according to the fish-cleaning lady at Deep Sea Headquarters.

To many folks, this level of snapper success tells them the feds should dramatically relax harvest restrictions on red snapper. To me, it says NOAA's science-based regulatory measures are working to return snapper stocks to historic levels. If we stay the course, we will be rewarded with abundant stocks of mature fish, along with snapper distributed among all age classes as nature intended.

But we are not a patient lot. And because it is popular to reject, despise or distrust the feds, there have been several attempts at mutiny during the past few years in addition to defying the rules by expanding state-water harvests. Most of the organized insurgence involves attempts to remove commercial and recreational snapper management from federal authority and place it in the hands of the five gulf states.

Last year, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana proposed a bill that would accomplish this. It got nowhere. So he proposed it again this year. House Bill 3094 was debated in the House Natural Resources Committee and survived, with one key omission.

It lacks any provision for federal funding to help states manage and enforce the fishery 200 miles into the gulf. This would amount to an unfunded mandate, which ironically is something I assume many proponents of this kind of measure hate about federal authority. And the legislation thus far has no complimentary Senate bill, which it would need to become law.

In a somewhat surprising and embarrassing twist, the new secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries this week came out against the Graves bill, which has 23 co-sponsors and about the same number of lawmakers so far who have expressed opposition, according to the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders' Alliance, a group of commercial fisherman and industry professionals.

"Without federal funding, Louisiana could potentially lack the proper resources to manage the red snapper fishery. (The law) would not be a viable option for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries," wrote LDWF Secretary Charlie Melancon. "It would be fiscally irresponsible for the Department to support any mandate that would result in an unknown amount of fiscal burden placed on the State of Louisiana for the management of a single species of fish."

If this proposal becomes law, the five gulf states would divide the recreational and commercial snapper quota among themselves and track their own harvest numbers. Previous proposals based the state allocations on harvest history, but the five states could decide together to dole out percentages based on shoreline length or some other measure of effort. No doubt, Florida would get a large share either way. But based on inadequate harvest records, Texas could be shortchanged and disappointed with its share.

Despite the unknowns, Texas Parks & Wildlife's Robin Riechers, director of Coastal Fisheries, said he supports the transfer of federal authority to the states. He believes the states are better equipped and capable of a management approach that will benefit the resource in the long run.

Mississippi's chief scientific officer for the Department of Marine Resources also supports the bill. The relatively small coastlines of Mississippi and Alabama most likely would inflict less of a funding burden compared to other states.

"It is our current opinion that the (Mississippi Department of Marine Resources) could absorb the cost associated with the management," said the department's Kelly Lucas.

Chris Blankenship, director of the Alabama Marine Resources Division, said his division is prepared to fully manage the red snapper fishery off its coast. As of Friday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had not indicated whether it could afford HB 3094.

Too hot outside for grilling? The Chef’s Choice Professional Indoor Electric Grill Model 878 has a nonstick ceramic cooking surface in a lightweight, compact, healthy alternative for fish, seafood and veggies. Grease drains away. The grill is removable and easy to clean in the sink or dishwasher. Cooking surface is 141 square inches. Cost: $130. Online: www.chefschoice.com