On red snapper caught by the Galveston, Texas headboat fishery: movement, population characteristics, and productivity.

Modern literature concerning red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) is reviewed with particular attention to the Texas Gulf Coast. Red snapper were caught on headboats in waters off Galveston, Texas. A total of 1431 red snapper were tagged using Floy spaghetti tags. Recaptures totaled 129 (9.08%), of which 17 (14.26%) exhibited movement of from 9.3 to 27.9 km during the period of liberty. The majority (85.6%) of recaptures were reported by headboat anglers. Fishing effort characteristics of the headboat fleet are described. Length frequencies of headboat red snapper catches collected by the author and by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department were converted to age frequency distributions using red snapper growth data published by Nelson and Manooch (1982). Comparison of age frequency distributions of red snapper landed at Galveston, Port Aransas, and Port Isabel, Texas showed marked juvenescence in the Galveston catches. Adjustment for seasonal bias removed some, but not all of this trend. These findings were used to motivate a Ricker year-class yield model of the Galveston headboat fishery for red snapper. Various configurations and applications of the model are described, including an index of harvest that combines yield in weight and catch in numbers.