Florida Fauna & Flora – Red Snapper
Florida Fauna & Flora: Red Snapper
Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced that Florida’s 2022 recreational red snapper season opened June 17 and runs consecutively through July 31. Visit myfwc.com for upcoming fall dates.
Red snapper in deeper waters tend to be redder than those caught in shallower waters. They have a long triangular face with the upper part sloping more strongly than the lower and earned the name snapper from their enlarged canine teeth.
Age wise, red snapper can live a long time—red snapper as old as 57 years have been reported in the Gulf of Mexico and can grow to 40 inches long and 50 pounds. Females are able to reproduce as early as age 2. Males and females spawn from May to October, depending on their location.
Red snapper feed on fish, shrimp, crab, worms, cephalopods (octopus or squid) and some plankton. Young red snapper are food for the large carnivorous fish that share their habitat, such as jacks, groupers, sharks, barracudas, and morays.
These fish are generally found at 30 to 620 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico and along the eastern coasts of North America, Central America, and northern South America. They are rare north of the Carolinas.
Read the full July 2022 SECO News online.
