Prepared by: The Red Drum Plan Review Team

• Main Authors: For Red Drum, Roger Pugliese, South Atlantic, Fishery Management Council
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Red drum
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.644.8976; http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/reddrum2003fmpreview.pdf

development of northern markets for southern fish. In 1990, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council adopted an FMP for red drum that defined overfishing and optimum yield (OY) consistent with the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. Adoption of this plan prohibited the harvest of red drum in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Council FMP, in recognition that all harvest would take place in state waters, recommended that states implement measures necessary to provide the target level of at least 30 % escapement. The moratorium on harvest of red drum in the EEZ still remains in effect. The ASMFC updated its FMP to be consistent with the Council plan. The 1991 revision to the plan was Amendment 1, with a goal to attain optimum yield from the fishery over time. OY was defined as the amount of harvest that could be taken while maintaining the spawning stock biomass per recruit (SSBR) level at or above 30 % of the level that would result if fishing mortality was zero. However, the lack of adequate information on the status of the adult stock resulted in the use of a 30 % escapement rate of sub-adult red drum into the adult population. Substantial reductions in fishing mortality were necessary to increase the escapement of sub-