Amendment No. 1 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Red Drum Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico.

This Amendment to the Fishery Management Plan for the Red Drum Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico continues the prohibition of a directed commercial EEZ fishery and prohibits harvest from the EEZ off Florida and Texas (secondary areas). Commercial and recreational estimated catch allowances are converted into quotas that were restricted to EEZ waters off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama (the primary area). The Council also requested that all Gulf states implement rules within their jurisdictions that would provide for an escapement rate of juvenile fish to the spawning stock biomass (SSB) equivalent to 20 percent of those that would have escaped had there been no inshore fishery. Such an escapement rate was judged as necessary to maintain a SSB level that would prevent recruitment failure and collapse of the fishery.