{"id":281188,"date":"2026-05-22T19:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281188\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T19:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:16:07","slug":"judge-blocks-floridas-atlantic-red-snapper-season-hours-before-memorial-day-weekend-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281188\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge blocks Florida\u2019s Atlantic red snapper season hours before Memorial Day weekend start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">BREVARD COUNTY, Fla.  \u2013 Anglers hoping to cast lines for Atlantic red snapper this Memorial Day weekend were dealt a last-minute blow after a federal court stepped in to block the season, just hours before it was set to begin, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/florida\/2026\/05\/22\/red-snapper-fishing-season-put-on-pause-one-day-before-florida-anglers-set-to-hit-the-water\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/florida\/2026\/05\/22\/red-snapper-fishing-season-put-on-pause-one-day-before-florida-anglers-set-to-hit-the-water\/\">WKMG news partner WJXT<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">On Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction halting activities under exempted fishing permits, or EFPs, that had authorized the 2026 state recreational red snapper seasons in the South Atlantic. The ruling took effect immediately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">A federal judge granted the injunction after a fishing trade group and others sued to block the Trump administration\u2019s plan to expand recreational access. The season had been scheduled to begin Memorial Day weekend and continue through June, before reopening during three October weekends.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The South Atlantic EFPs for Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina are no longer in effect until further order from the court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cAll recreational fishing under these South Atlantic EFPs is not authorized, including tomorrow\u2019s start date of May 22, 2026, for Florida\u2019s recreational red snapper season,\u201d NOAA Fisheries said in a statement. \u201cContact your state agency for further details.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/florida\/2026\/05\/12\/florida-expands-atlantic-red-snapper-season-to-39-days\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/florida\/2026\/05\/12\/florida-expands-atlantic-red-snapper-season-to-39-days\/\">Earlier this month<\/a>, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that NOAA approved a 39-day recreational fishing season through an exempted fishing permit pilot program, which gives the state more authority over Atlantic recreational red snapper management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The ruling does not affect the South Atlantic red snapper commercial season, which NOAA Fisheries said it will announce at a later date. NOAA also said it will announce whether there will be a 2026 federal recreational season for red snapper in the South Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Anglers hoping to cast lines for Atlantic red snapper this Memorial Day weekend were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[315,28,30,29,19726,27278,2261],"class_list":["post-281188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-brevard-county","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-noaa","tag-red-snapper","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}