Comment from David Conway

To close the red snapper fishery now, in the shadows of the economic and scientific controversies surrounding the move, would be to ask for damage to the authority of the management process itself. It's a colossal blunder from a social and political perspective, and absolutely a misguided protection measure as well. The great shame is that truly, there can be no decisive understanding of the conditions of the red snapper stocks in East coast U.S. waters now: because people will not believe NOAA's word or science after the closure. Surely just as unfortunately, nor will very many private anglers want to abide by the law. David Conway