The first of a series of public meetings on possible changes to saltwater fishing regulations showed that officials are considering changes that could affect how Alabama anglers go after shark, flounder and red snapper, among other species.

Most of the possible changes could be considered fine-tuning. But state officials also are looking at the possibility of setting limits on common snook, a species that has begun to establish a presence in Alabama as average water temperatures have risen. They’re also looking at possible limits on skates and rays to protect them from wasteful fishing by bowhunters.

Scott Bannon, director of the Marine Resources Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR), along with other Marine Resources personnel, held a session Tuesday night at Spanish Fort Community Center. Bannon said the division is weighing various concerns and wants public input on responses – which, in some cases, include letting the status quo stand.

Marine Resources will present its findings to a Conservation Advisory Board in early 2025, Bannon said. That board could recommend changes or further study by late spring.

The species involved, the concerns and the changes under consideration:

Sheepshead

Existing limits for sheepshead were set in 2012: 10 fish per person per day, with a minimum fork length of 12 inches. Officials say they’ve seen a decline in “recreational catch per unit of effort” as well as a decline in commercial landings.

One possible change would be to increase the minimum length. While Florida shares Alabama’s 12-inch minimum, Mississippi’s is 14 inches and Texas’ is 15 inches. Louisiana does not regulate sheepshead. However, officials have reasons to think that increasing the minimum size might not improve the spawning stock biomass, a term for the total weight of fish that are mature enough to reproduce. The average length of sheepshead caught by Alabama anglers is 15.5 inches.

Another possible change would be to lower the bag limit, possibly from 10 to eight. Mississippi’s limit is 15, while Florida’s is eight and Texas’ is five. Officials think this would “allow for more fish to be released and potentially increase the overall spawning stock and reproductive output.”

Red drum/redfish

Slot limits are higher in all other Gulf Coast states, starting at 18-inch minimums. Louisiana and Florida do not allow anglers to keep any oversize fish.

The possible change under discussion is to end the allowance for oversize redfish.

Common snook

Snook puts regulators and anglers in an interesting situation. It’s not a species native to Alabama, so it isn’t regulated. However, for more than a decade now, people have been catching snook in the waters around Perdido Bay. There’s a definite upside to this: The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission describes the common snook as “one of Florida’s most popular inshore game fish because of its spectacular fighting ability and merit as table fare.”

Early on, officials thought the snook were visiting but not overwintering in Alabama waters. Now “they seem to overwinter,” said Anson. This is part of a larger trend of warm-water fish extending their habitat northward as global ocean temperatures rise. It’s called “tropicalization,” and what could be healthy for some species might be harmful for others. Anson said Alabama conservation officials have been talking to their counterparts in Florida, who’ve seen snook rising from south Florida and spreading across the Panhandle.

Related: Tropical fish found off Alabama coast as waters warm: ‘They’re everywhere you go’

“Here’s the deal. There’s two ways to look at it,” said Bannon. “They’re not from here. There’s no regulation, you could catch them all, we could go ahead and be done with it. But most people that are catching them don’t want that, they want some form of protection. As much as people think we’re a ‘no’ agency, our job is to provide access to the fisheries. So, this is a new fishery, people are enjoying it, they should get to enjoy it. So to come out with no data and say ‘no,’ I don’t think really falls in line with the way we view how we do conservation.”

“They’re not a native species, so in theory we could wipe them out and it’s okay, it has no impact on the environment,” said Bannon. But there’s also the possibility that protecting the new snook fishery could help it develop into a boon for coastal fishing.

The potential action put on the table by Marine Resources is a one-fish limit with a minimum total length of 24 inches. This would be lower than Florida’s limit of one fish with a 28-inch to 33-inch total length.

The audience on hand at Tuesday’s meeting seemed to favor taking action to nurture the snook fishery, possibly even the institution of a catch-and-release protocol or a tagging program.

Tripletail

Officials say they’re picking up on concern about the tripletail population and are waiting on more data. While it’s too early to say, that data could lead them to tighten up the existing recreational and commercial limit of three fish per person per day, with a minimum total length of 18 inches. One course of action might be to impose a boat limit as well as an individual limit. “There may not be a need for anything,” said Bannon. “This is one that just comes up a lot, so we wanted to just put that out there for you guys to provide us some feedback about what you are seeing on the water.”

Skates and rays

Anson said there currently are no state or federal limits on skates and rays. But he said they’re a slow-reproducing class that is under pressure from a new source. “They have been an increasing target for bowfishing,” said Anson. “For bowfishermen, they have charters that go out at night and use lights to shoot them with bow and arrow.”

The problem, Anson said, is that in some cases hunters are targeting rays merely to collect their tails as trophies, returning the injured fish to the water with unknown mortality (rays can regrow their tails, though a ray without one is presumed to be at a disadvantage in the meantime).

“There is a role for skates and rays, they’re scavengers. They’re not crustacean killers,” said Bannon. “When we see stacks of them on shore … I’m going to use the reference to, everybody thought it was okay to ride on the train and shoot the buffalo, until they couldn’t. I don’t want to take away anybody’s business, I am very pro-business … but in order for that business to stay in business, they need those species to stay.”

Bannon said that if ray hunters are removing “35 to 70 tails per trip, that’s 35 to 70 critters that reproduce very slowly” that are dead or injured, with a potential long-term impact on the population. “I just don’t think that’s a sustainable practice,” said Bannon. “I definitely don’t think it’s good stewardship.”

Anglers present at Tuesday’s meeting spoke of the practice with some scorn, with one saying it was like “shooting a deer just to cut the horns off.”

Potential responses could be to institute a low recreational bag limit, such as two fish per person; prohibiting anglers from cutting off the tails or part of the tails; or requiring people using a gig, spear or bow and arrow to keep all the rays they catch.

Sharks

The Marine Resources Division is considering a change that would allow very limited longline commercial shark fishing in some state waters. Lines would be limited to 2400 feet of line and 50 hooks, among other constraints.

Flounder

The division is considering the possibility of increasing the commercial gillnet limit from the current 40 fish per vessel to 60 or higher. Bannon said this was aimed at providing some relief for the small and diminishing population of licensed commercial gillnet users.

Red snapper

Research suggests the “abundance is stable” when it comes to the red snapper fishery, so the changes under consideration have more to do with access than with limits.

In recent seasons the state has opened its red snapper season the Friday before Memorial Day and kept it open for four-day weekends, Friday through Monday, until the catch approached the year’s recreational quota. Graphs of the action show that snapper seasons get off to a fast start, with a lot of boats hitting the water in the first few weeks, then taper off dramatically through later summer and fall.

A change under consideration would be to open the 2025 season seven days a week through June, then switch to four-day weekends in July.

Captain and Crew

One area of discussion is not species-specific. Alabama law allows charter captains and crew to keep a daily bag limit of fish on one trip per day. Marine Resources figures seem to show that captains and crews have made relatively little use of the provision. Possible courses of action include ending the captain and crew allotment, or letting it stand.

The second meeting in the series will be held from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Orange Beach Event Center at The Wharf, 4671 Orange Beach Parkway. The third is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the Tillman’s Corner Community Center, 5055 Carol Plantation Road.

According to the meeting announcement, the sessions will be streamed at https://aldcnr.webex.com/meet/scott.bannon.