Fisheries of the South Atlantic; 2026 Recreational Accountability Measure and Closure for Snowy Grouper in the South Atlantic
§ 01 Summary
NMFS shortens the 2026 recreational fishing season for snowy grouper in South Atlantic Federal waters and closes recreational harvest on the adjusted closure date. The action implements an accountability measure because recreational landings exceeded the annual catch limit in 2025 and is intended to prevent another overage in 2026.
§ 02 Why this matters
The rule creates a binding seasonal closure: recreational fishermen and for-hire operators may not harvest snowy grouper in South Atlantic Federal waters after the adjusted closure date for the remainder of the 2026 season. This directly changes the lawful fishing window to enforce the recreational annual catch limit.
§ 03 Topics
§ 04 Affected entities
- agency: National Marine Fisheries Service
- agency: NOAA
- agency: Department of Commerce
- industry: recreational-fishing
- industry: charter-fishing-operators
- jurisdiction: South Atlantic Federal waters
- statute: Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
§ 05 Matching feeds
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§ 06 Source document
Read the full Federal Register entry on federalregister.gov.
Show classifier input (what GPT-5.5 saw)
Type: Rule Agencies: Commerce Department; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Citation: 91 FR 32906 Title: Fisheries of the South Atlantic; 2026 Recreational Accountability Measure and Closure for Snowy Grouper in the South Atlantic Abstract: NMFS implements an accountability measure (AM) and closure for the recreational harvest of snowy grouper in South Atlantic Federal waters. NMFS reduces the length of the snowy grouper 2026 recreational fishing season to prevent landings from exceeding the recreational annual catch limit (ACL) in 2026 as they did in 2025. Accordingly, NMFS announces the adjusted closure date for the snowy grouper 2026 recreational fishing season in South Atlantic Federal waters to protect the snowy grouper resource.
Classified Jun 2, 2026 by gpt-5.5. Fetched Jun 2, 2026.
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