Thursday’s Wildlife and Fisheries Commission vote to open the spring inshore shrimp season on the same day — 6 a.m. May 16 — was unusual considering past years when the major coastal basins opened on different days.
The move came after Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Shrimp Study section indicated May 16 to be a day common to all basins when shrimp moving into coastal bays and marshes would reach a size fit for the market.
Hunting seasons
The commission also voted in the next hunting season dates and regulations during Thursday’s meeting. Among the amendments offered since January’s proposed dates and regs, only the Deer Area 2 hunting season was voted down and will be as originally proposed, to include: archery, Oct. 1-Jan. 31; primitive firearms, Oct. 19-25 & Jan. 13-19; modern firearms, still hunt only, Oct. 26-Dec. 4; modern firearms, with/without dogs, Dec. 5-Jan. 12; and, youth and honorably discharged veterans, Oct. 12-18.
The next step is Legislative oversight, and will become final if legislators take no action on the seasons and regulations.
Red snapper
It looks like offshore fishermen took advantage of the early April 15 opening and the four-fish-per-day limit in this year’s recreational red snapper season.
State biologists, using the LA Creel data collection program, announced anglers took 161,317 pounds in the season’s first week ending April 21. That’s 17% of our state’s 934,587-pound annual allocation.