Saving Seafood

Louisiana inside red snapper limit; Florida, Alabama go over

November 5, 2018 — If Chad Courville didn’t physically show how upset he is with recent catch data posted for each of the five Gulf states, his words certainly did during Thursday’s Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission monthly meeting in Baton Rouge.

Courville, one of the commission’s seven, took note of a report indicating Florida’s recreational fishermen caught 113.5 percent of its allowed red snapper catch during its 40-day season. Alabama’s report was 100.2 percent.

“The MRIP numbers are insane,” Courville said, mentioning the federal Marine Resources Information Program data showing Alabama might have taken as much as four million pounds of snapper and its state agency reported on pounds of red snapper during the recreational season.

Meanwhile, Louisiana, using its highly accredited and federally approved LA Creel system, showed its state anglers took 99.2 percent of its allowed 700,000-pound-plus red snapper allowed limit. Mississippi reported at 95.6 percent while Texas’ numbers are not final because the Lone Star State continues to hold its state waters open to red snapper catches.

Read the full story at The Advocate

 

LOUISIANA: Red snapper presentation tops LWFC agenda

April 6, 2017 — Although listed among the items deep into the agenda for the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, the entitled “Receive input on Red Snapper Management from members of the Louisiana commercial, charter, and private recreational sectors,” likely will highlight Thursday’s monthly meeting.

Chairman Chad Courville is scheduled to open the meeting at 1:30 p.m. in the Louisiana Room of state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.

It was Courville who asked for the red snapper presentation saying he and the other six commission members needed further delineation on the wants and needs of these user groups in order to determine the future of the state’s approach to red snapper management.

In another top item, the LWFC will call on State Shrimp Program manager Jeff Marx for a presentation on the program’s operation, then discuss the possibility of a special late April meeting to set the spring inshore shrimp season. For most of the past 40 years, the commission met in the first week of May to consider the spring season’s opening dates in three coastal zones.

The LWFC will also receive final public comment, then undertake formal adoption of the 2017-2018 hunting seasons and regulations for resident and migratory game, and dates and rules for the same time frame on the more than 1 million acres of state wildlife management areas and federal lands.

Read the full story at The Advocate