Colby Shaw of Newport has broken a 15-year state record with his recent catch of a vermilion snapper.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries announced the new state record Thursday. Shaw caught the 7-pound, 4-ounce vermilion snapper, or Rhomboplites aurorubens, April 18 south of Beaufort Inlet.
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The previous state record for the highly prized species was 6 pounds, 9 ounces landed in Ocean Isle in 2009.
The division said Shaw was fishing in his own vessel when the fish struck his cut bait. “Shaw made quick work of reeling in his state record fish, landing it using his Shimano rod and reel with 65-pound braid,” according to the announcement.
Shaw’s fish measured 23.5-inches fork length, which is from the tip of the nose to the fork in the tail, with a 17-inch girth. Fisheries staff weighed in the fish at the division’s headquarters office in Morehead City.
Wild-caught vermilion snapper from U.S. waters “is a smart seafood choice because it is sustainably managed and responsibly harvested under U.S. regulations,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Vermilion snappers’ range extends from Cape Hatteras to southeastern Brazil and includes the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Recreational anglers landed 3.4 million pounds of vermilion snapper in 2023, the most recent figures in NOAA Fisheries’ recreational fishing landings database.
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The database shows 2023, commercial landings in the Gulf and South Atlantic totaled 1.8 million pounds and was worth about $7.2 million.
The species can live 15 years, biologists say, and they spend much of their existence close to the bottom, whether rocky or sandy, near the continental and just off the islands.
For more information on state record fish, go to the division’s State Saltwater Records webpage or contact the North Carolina Saltwater Fishing Tournament staff at saltwater.citations@deq.nc.gov.
