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In May 2025, the Sciaenids Management Board initiated Draft Addendum II to Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Red Drum, which will consider changes to the management programs for the southern (South Carolina through the east coast of Florida) and northern (New Jersey through North Carolina) stocks of red drum. The Draft Addendum responds to the 2024 Red Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report, which the Board approved for management use in October 2024. The assessment indicates the northern stock of red drum is not overfished and not experiencing overfishing, while the southern stock is overfished and experiencing overfishing.
The Draft Addendum will consider modifying Amendment 2 reference points for the southern stock as well as the process to set management measures to achieve the reference points (reference points are tools used to measure the status of a fish population or stock relative to management objectives). These suggested modifications to how red drum is currently managed would allow the southern stock states to propose changes to their current red drum management measures to achieve the new reference points. Although the northern stock is not overfished, nor experiencing overfishing, the Board expressed concern with an increasing trend in fishing mortality observed in the northern stock. As a result, the Draft Addendum will consider changes to the states’ recreational bag and slot limits for the northern stock, as well as provide the northern stock states with the opportunity to align their differing regulations, particularly in the Chesapeake Bay.
Phase
Status
May 2025: Board initiated Draft Addendum II
Completed
Plan Development Team develops Draft Addendum for Board consideration for public comment
Active
Board considers Draft Addendum II for Public Comment
August 2025
Draft Addendum II Public Comment Period, including Public Hearings
September 2025
Board considers final approval of Addendum II
October 2025
Implementation of Addendum II
TBD
Contacts
- Tracey Bauer, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, tbauer@asmfc.org, 703.842.0723
Action Development Timeline & Documents
October 2024
October 2024: The Board reviews and accepts for management use the 2024 Red Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report, which finds the northern stock of red drum is not overfished and not experiencing overfishing, while the southern stock is overfished and experiencing overfishing.
Notably, the assessment was the second part of a two-part effort to assess red drum stocks along the Atlantic coast. Prior to the assessment, a simulation assessment was used to create a model, called the operating model (OM), that could simulate red drum-like populations of fish. The OMs used red drum datasets and published literature to determine how fish in the simulated populations grow, interact with fisheries, reproduce, and die through time. Two separate OMs were developed to account for the differences between the two red drum stocks. The OMs were structured to sample datasets from their simulated populations that matched the types of available red drum datasets (e.g., fishery catches, fishery-independent indices of abundance). These simulated datasets were then used in stock assessment models, to determine how well the models could estimate key characteristics of the simulated populations.
May 2025
Board initiates development of Draft Addendum II in response to the 2024 Red Drum Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report. Draft Addendum will consider changes to the management programs for the southern (South Carolina through the east coast of Florida) and northern (New Jersey through North Carolina) stocks of red drum.
June 2025
Plan Development Team meet to begin development of Draft Addendum II.
Next Steps
The Board will meet at the Commission’s Summer Meeting (August 2025) to consider approval of Addendum II for public comment.