New permit required for offshore fishing

Fishermen out to land offshore species of fish in Mississippi will soon be required to obtain a new permit in addition to a fishing license.

The commission on Marine Resources today passed a regulation calling for an offshore landing permit, similar to those in place in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida.

The intent is to keep more accurate records of offshore fishing to help regulate the amount of fish caught in Mississippi waters.

Officials passed the motion at a time when the data estimates offshore catches are not coinciding with seasonal quotas.

The permit will be good for a calendar year – the same as recreational fishing licenses – and will allow anglers to fish for specific species like snapper, cobia, amberjack, grouper or hind, and gray triggerfish.

Trevor Moncrief, FinFish Bureau director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, says the permit should not come as a burden to fishermen but to create a network of offshore anglers.

“And what it does is give us a universe of offshore anglers that we can then, you know, send out questionnaires and do surveys for on the efforts that we’re piloting out this year. So that’s kind of the intent of this regulation,” said Moncrief. “So, we’ll have estimates in January and February that are upwards of 400,000 pounds for red snapper that just don’t match what we’re seeing. And then we’ve got spotted seatrout estimates in November and December that are well above 1 million and pushing 2 million pounds which also doesn’t follow our fishery. ”

The permit is free and will take effect in 2024.

In the first year of the permit, officials expect no tickets to be issued.

DMR instead will give the anglers a grace period.