A fishing boat sits outside Singleton's Seafood Shack in Mayport. | Michelle Corum, Jacksonville Today
Published on March 28, 2025 at 11:36 am
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One local seafood market owner is not sad to see the fisheries arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scaled back.
NOAA Fisheries keeps track of fish stocks, determines when certain fish can be caught and sets catch limits.
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Last month, the Trump administration fired more than 160 fisheries employees.
Those who rely on NOAA Fisheries say the cutbacks mean that stakeholders have lost a voice needed to manage coastal fisheries. But Gerald Pack, who owns Safe Harbor Seafood Market in Mayport, would be glad to see NOAA go.
“If they laid NOAA off, it won’t bother the fishing industry,” Pack said. “It may bother the weather people. There’s a lot of things that they do, but the fishing industry will applaud that.”
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Pack says NOAA’s control of fishing quotas is causing high market prices. He says red snapper is plentiful in the region, yet he is forced to pay high prices for inferior, imported fish.
“If they would allow us to catch what’s right in front of us … you’d be happy as a consumer and the boats could pay their bills. Easily,” he said.
Pack also disagreed when NOAA reduced recreational snapper fishing from three days to one last year. According to seafoodsource.com, an industry news site, a government assessment determined that red snapper is still subject to overfishing.
Conservation groups sued NOAA Fisheries to force a new red snapper fishery management plan in the South Atlantic. NOAA has agreed to finalize one by June.
