Every year around this time, serious anglers who chase grouper and snapper in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands get the same reminder from NOAA Fisheries: put the rods down in certain federal waters from December through February, sometimes longer. For 2025-2026 the rules haven’t changed, and they’re about to kick in again starting December 1st. If you’ve got a trip booked to the west coast of Puerto Rico or around St. Croix this winter, you need to know exactly where you can’t fish and why these closures exist in the first place.
First, the big one that affects the most water: the seasonal red hind closure west of 67°10’ West longitude around Puerto Rico. From December 1, 2025 through February 28, 2026 you cannot fish for or even possess red hind grouper in federal waters (generally everything farther than 9 nautical miles offshore, though the state-federal line gets tricky on the west end). That’s the entire west half of Puerto Rico out to the edge of the EEZ. One stray red hind in the fish box in that zone during those three months and you’re looking at a federal ticket.
On top of that broad closure, three specific spawning areas are completely off-limits to all fishing, not just red hind, during the same December-through-February window:
- Tourmaline Bank, west of Mayagüez (only the federal-water portion)
- Abrir La Sierra Bank (sometimes marked as Buoy 6 on older charts)
- Lang Bank east of St. Croix
In these boxes you can’t drop a jig, soak a bait, or even troll through for pelagics. No fishing for anything at all from December 1 to the end of February. The coordinates are published every year, but most GPS units and plotter cards sold in Puerto Rico already have these no-fish zones loaded and labeled.
Then there’s Bajo de Sico, the underwater mountain about 12 miles off Rincón on the west coast. That area stays closed to all fishing for Caribbean reef fish (groupers, snappers, triggerfish, etc., the full council-managed list) for an extra month, running through March 31, 2026. Anchoring a boat there has been illegal year-round for over a decade, ever since everyone realized anchors were chewing up the coral every time the current shifted.
Most local captains and experienced private boaters already know these dates by heart, but every season NOAA sends out the same fishery bulletin because inevitably a few mainland boats show up in San Juan or Ponce, steam straight to the west-end grounds in January, and get an expensive surprise from the Coast Guard or DNR or NOAA enforcement.
The reason behind all of it is simple: red hind, along with several other big groupers and snappers, form huge spawning aggregations during the winter months, often around the full moons of December, January, and February. Thousands of fish that normally live spread out across the shelf will pack into a few small areas to breed. Back before these closures started in the late 1990s and early 2000s, commercial and recreational boats would follow the aggregations and hammer them year after year. The fish never had a real chance to reproduce successfully, and the red hind population crashed hard.
Scientists found that by shutting down fishing pressure for just those three peak months in the exact spots where the fish gather to spawn, the population bounces back fast. Red hind are still listed as undergoing overfishing in some assessments, but the spawning closures, along with size limits and the 3-grouper aggregate bag limit, have kept the stock from total collapse and actually let the average size of fish increase again. Walk into any west-coast fish market in Puerto Rico today and you’ll still see plenty of red hind fillets, proof the protections work when everyone follows them.
For guys who run their own boats, the practical takeaway is straightforward. Load the latest zone files into your plotter before you leave the dock. The free NOAA charts and most Navionics and CMOR updates include the seasonal closures; they’ll flash red or purple during the closed months. If you fish with a reputable charter out of Rincón, Mayagüez, or St. Thomas, the captain already knows where he can and can’t go. The surprise busts almost always happen to private boats or less-experienced charter operations.
And if you’re the type who likes to anchor up and bottom-fish overnight, remember Bajo de Sico is still a no-anchor zone 365 days a year. Plenty of other good ledges and banks on the west shelf that aren’t restricted.
Bottom line: these winter closures have been in place long enough that they’re just part of fishing the U.S. Caribbean now. Respect the dates, fish the open areas, and the red hind (along with the big cubera snapper, muttons, and yellowfin grouper that spawn on the same grounds) will keep showing up on the cleaning table for years to come. Ignore them and you’ll ruin your trip and probably cost yourself a few thousand dollars in fines.
The season opens back up March 1 for most areas, April 1 for Bajo de Sico. Mark the calendar, plan the late-winter run for wahoo and tuna in the meantime, and everybody stays happy, fish included.
