Red Snapper Biology in a Changing World

Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus, is an important commercial and recreational fish species and there has been much interest in maintaining its status among a variety of scientific, social and economic levels. Stocks are influenced by varying environmental conditions, changing fishing effort and efficiency, anthropogenic effects, inter- and intraspecific interactions, bycatch from other fisheries, and habitat alterations. Red Snapper Biology in a Changing World explores these changing factors and their potential effects on Red Snapper in the Eastern Atlantic region including the Gulf of Mexico and Southeastern U.S.

The book will provide a better understanding of Red Snapper population fluctuations that will subsequently allow for better management decisions and more informed user groups in their efforts to maintain a sustainable fishery. It explores the responses Red Snapper have made, and are making, relative to their life history attributes such as early life history and adult ecology, especially attributes associated with population distribution and abundance, movement patterns, fish health issues and management success.

A compendium of many papers presented at the 147th annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Tampa, Florida, this volume also includes additional research completed as a result of the symposium. It will be essential reading for fisheries scientists and managers, ichthyologists, resource and environmental managers, and policymakers who are involved with coastal fisheries.

Stephen T Szedlmayer, Ph.D., attended Millersville University, Lancaster, PA, for undergraduate studies. He then entered the University of South Florida and earned a Master’s degree in the Marine Science program under the supervision of Professor John C. Briggs. After graduating from USF he worked for a short period at Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota FL, before entering the graduate program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, VA. After completing his Ph.D., he accepted a post-doctoral position at the Rutgers University Marine Field Station, Tuckerton NJ, and collaborated with Professor Kenneth W. Able. He was then hired the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, AL. While at Auburn he rose through the ranks to Professor, and mentored numerous graduate students on studies of various aspects of marine fish ecology.

Recently retired as Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, Stephen A. Bortone now is an Environmental Consultant with Osprey Aquatic Sciences, LLC based in Windham, New Hampshire (USA). As a consultant, he specializes in fisheries and is noted especially as an authority on artificial reefs. Currently, he is also Marine Biology Series Editor with CRC Press. Previously, Dr. Bortone served as Director of the Minnesota Sea Grant College Program with an appointment as Professor of Biology at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Earlier in his career he was the founding Director of the Marine Laboratory at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation in Sanibel, Florida, Director of Environmental Science at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, and Director of the Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Research while Professor of Biology at the University of West Florida