South Atlantic recreational anglers can beathe a collective sigh of releif over the news that NOAA plans to delay implemention of its mammoth planned clousures to all bottomfishing for at least six months. This clousure, a management tool designed to spur red snapper stock recovery, was questioned both by scientists and fishery conversation organizations such as the Coastal Conservation Association, when government assessments showed red snapper stocks to be far healthier than NOAA previously claimed. Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA's National Relations Committee, says: "The supposed best science that we had two years ago nearly shut down the entire South Atlantic to bottomfishing, and today it appears we don't need that. Yet we still have a closed red snapper fishery and a great deal of confusion and mistrust in the recreational angling community." Brewer continues:"No other wildlife resources are managed in such a haphazard manner".
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