Thread: AL Shrimp Season

Apparently the legislature knows how to manage shrimping better than AL-MRD. I mean MRD only has a building full of marine biologists and 50 years of experience managing the fishery here in Alabama, what could they possibly know???

Alabama State Waters Opening for Shrimping
Pursuant to Section 9-12-46, Code of Alabama 1975, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Marine Resources Division announces that as of 6:00 am, Wednesday, June 1, 2016 all inside waters not permanently closed by law or regulation will open for shrimp harvesting. This includes Mobile Bay, Bon Secour Bay, Mississippi Sound, Perdido Bay, Arnica Bay, Wolf Bay and Little Lagoon.
In the 2015 Alabama Legislative session, the legislature passed SB 455 which changed the strategy in which Alabama manages the shrimp fishery. Traditionally, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources/Marine Resources Division managed the shrimp fishery with time/area closures based upon the distribution of 68 count shrimp. The 2015 legislation requires all Alabama inside waters to be closed at 6:00 am on May 1st of each year and all Alabama inside waters not permanently closed by law or regulation to be opened at 6:00 am on June 1st of each year. The 2016 shrimp season will be the first year that the new management dates will be utilized.
Licensed live bait dealers holding a permit for Special Live Bait Areas are reminded that an area beside the Battleship Alabama south of the Tensaw River Bridge, north of a line from the north point of Pinto Pass (N30 40.755 W88 01.124) to the northwest edge of Goat Island (N30 40.124 W88 00.784); and west of a line from the northwest edge of Goat Island to the eastern end of Tensaw River Bridge (N30 40.955 W88 00.444) will be open from one hour before sunrise until sunset from June 1-December 31, 2016.

The jackassedness flows strong in Montgomery.

Do you know if MRD was opposed to the change or not? Was this some kind of cost cutting measure?

It is certainly an odd change if MRD was opposed. Maybe the shrimping industry lobbied for it. We go recreational shrimping, but there are dang few of us and I've never heard any complaints.

I know that there was some talk that the statistics based on the sampling trawls was not too reliable. Some areas showing over 68 and others not, so that partial openings happened. Maybe the partial openings created the problem - some commercials getting to catch and market while others were stuck at the dock.

Odd that there was no publicity about it. I called MRD a couple of days ago to confirm and got a pretty short answer, no discussion.

Partial openings are not a problem, shrimp boats are very mobile, they just go to where its open.