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Mississippi bill would allow pogy boats to keep more red fish

February 10, 2016 โ€” A bill in the state Senate Ports and Marine Resources Committee would greatly increase the number of red drum a commercial fishing boat could have on board.

That, a conservation group says, is unacceptable.

โ€œAll of this has been done without any public scrutiny,โ€ said F.J. Eicke of the Coastal Conservation Association. He said the conservationists were not included in any discussions about the bill.

Sen. Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula said he was asked by Omega Protein, which fishes for menhaden in Mississippi waters, to file the bill.

โ€œThey are looking out for their captains,โ€ Wiggins said. โ€œThe way the law is now, there is zero tolerance. This allows law enforcement some leeway. As in any kind of law, there should be flexibility.โ€

Wiggins said the boat captains are responsible for the fines and have a violation that stays on their record that could hurt them during jobs searches.

The bill would increase from zero to 45 the number of red drum, also known as red fish, that can be kept by boats that fish with purse seines. Eicke said the red fish population is getting healthier but โ€œweโ€™re not where we need to be.

โ€œAnd now they want to allow them to take 45 fish every trip.โ€

Thatโ€™s not the only part of the bill the CCA doesnโ€™t like.

A couple of times, โ€œshallโ€ would be changed to โ€œmay,โ€ which Eicke said would enable law enforcement to let violators off with lesser penalties. Under both the current and proposed law, fines are $100 per red drum. But the penalty also would cost the violator the nets used to catch the fish. The change adds leeway to that penalty, though, by changing โ€œshallโ€ to โ€œmay.โ€

Read the full story at the Sun Herald

 

 

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