BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana officials say a state red snapper season is possible for anglers, because Louisiana anglers caught less than the state’s self-imposed limit of just over 1 million pounds (453,592 kilograms) by Sept. 4.
The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says surveys show Louisiana anglers caught less than 937,000 pounds of red snapper in three-day weekends from July through Sept. 4. That’s nearly 108,000 pounds below its limit.
A news release Thursday says the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission probably will consider Oct. 5 whether to reopen state waters for red snapper.
Red snapper are still recovering from nearly disastrous overfishing.
The Commerce Department proposed a 39-day season of three-day weekends this year if Gulf Coast states agreed to limit anglers fishing for red snapper in state waters to those dates.
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