The expanded recreational red snapper seasons that anglers across the South Atlantic had been counting on for 2026 have been put on hold, just days before they were due to open. The development was outlined by Bill Hitchcock on his YouTube program the Saltwater Report, who flagged it as the headline item for fishermen along the coast. "If you were planning to target South Atlantic red snapper, there's an important last-minute change," he said. "Recreational fishing under the new exempted fishing permits, including North Carolina's planned season, is no longer authorized."
The plan now on ice was an ambitious one. According to the rundown, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had approved a new framework known as exempted fishing permits that would have allowed Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina to run substantially expanded recreational red snapper seasons in federal waters. Florida had been cleared for a 39-day season, while Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina were each approved for 62 days. Some of those seasons were scheduled to begin as early as May 22.
Before any lines could go in under the new permits, the framework was challenged in court. A lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in Washington, DC, with plaintiffs including the Southeastern Fisheries Association, commercial fishing businesses and individual fishermen. The defendants named were Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The plaintiffs' objections went to the heart of how the seasons were structured. According to a press release cited in the report, they argued that the permits could allow recreational landings to exceed annual catch limits, potentially lead to overfishing, and effectively shift red snapper allocations toward the recreational sector without following the normal fishery management process.
The court agreed there was enough at stake to pause proceedings. On May 21, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction. As Hitchcock was careful to note, that is not a final ruling on the merits of the case. Rather, it immediately halted activity under the permits while the lawsuit works its way through the system. "Bottom line: recreational red snapper fishing remains closed," he said.
The reversal lands on a fishery that has been a source of frustration for South Atlantic anglers for more than a decade, with federal seasons in recent years often compressed into a single weekend despite a stock that scientists describe as healthy. The exempted-permit approach had been welcomed as a path to far longer, more workable windows, which makes the timing of the injunction, arriving on the eve of those seasons, especially deflating for recreational fishermen who had already made plans.
For now, the practical message for anglers in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina is unchanged from the closed-season status quo: the expanded recreational red snapper seasons under the exempted fishing permits are not in effect, and targeting the species recreationally in federal waters under that framework is not authorised while the case proceeds. With only a preliminary injunction in place, the ultimate fate of the 2026 seasons now rests on how the lawsuit is resolved.