Upon closure of the Red Snapper fishery, thousands of jobs have been eliminated through out the entire state of Florida. The closure has had an effect on the tourisim industry, charter fishing, seafood distributors, recreational fishing, bait and tackle stores etc... The fishery was shut down by NOAA researchers upon poor scientific data showing the fish to be overfished. A private team of researchers were then hired by a collective group to challenge the federal governments findings and the results were of the opposite extreme. Private researchers found the fish stock levels to be sustainable and actually flourishing. This research forced the federal governement to reassess their own data again. The State of Florida used to regulate their own fishery and now the Feds are taking it away.
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