Quote:
Originally Posted by BeastMan
What's weird is that LAhas the black drum limit but MS and AL do not have a size or bag limit on black drum. Many MS fisherman in west MS who mainly fish LA waters don't know that if they stay in MS, they can go crazy on drum. What makes it more weird is that MS and AL's redfish limit is less than LA but LA treats reds and black drums the same. One would figure LA had more drum, hence at least the same limit
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Back in the day, LA didn't want to bother to do the science on black drum, but they figured the life history was close enough to red drum that they could just set the limits the same and see how it went. It has worked well enough so far.
As time went on, the "blackened redfish" craze of the 1990s led to complete prohibition of commercial harvest of red drum, as well as prohibition of sporting take in federal waters. Black Drum, on the other hand, became popular marketed as imitation crab, and Louisiana has an annual commercial quota of 3.25 million pounds (16-27") and 300,000 fish over 27". There are some commercial fishers on and around Big Lake who run trot lines and catch thousands of pounds. I suspect a combination of this industry and historical momentum is why the recreational limits remain unchanged. These commercial fishers would likely complain to loosening or removing recreational limits on black drum unless their quota was also removed.
Black drum are also a popular catch among certain ethnic groups. Tightening up the limit on recreational fishers would probably be perceived as racism.
Personally, I think that LDWF will eventually realize that the marketable value of black drum is nowhere near the value of the oysters it takes to produce them (black drum eat a lot of oysters) and the loss of ecosystem services provided by valuable oyster reef habitats. Black drum should have a bounty, not a limit.