SNAPPER FISHERMEN GETTING AN EARLY START

By Sgt. Richard Purvis

February 1st was the opening of the Federally regulated commercial Red Snapper season in the Gulf of Mexico, In the past, Region 9 Agents have received complaints of snapper fishermen getting an early start on their season. The complaints were that some area fishermen would begin catching Red Snapper as early as two or three days prior to the noon opening on the first. In response to these complaints two teams of Agents were sent out into the Gulf of Mexico. One team out of Lafourche Parish, and one out of Terrebonne. Lt. Sammy Martin and I were the Terrebonne team.

We got an early start, around 7:00 a.m. We felt that the information that we received was good. The informant told us that a good area to start was a block of rigs approximately 30 to 35 miles offshore, Ship Shoal 208. We started out without any problems. It took us about 2 hours to get to where we needed to be. Of course by the time we got there the winds had picked-up and we had to fight 4 ft. seas. We began sweeping all of the rigs in the area, with no luck. We soon began to feel that we were going to get beat to death in this boat for nothing. After a good hour of "kidney pounding fun", we felt that discretion was the better part of valor. We turned north for the long long ride home. We were able to make a whopping 18 miles per hour on our way in.

After about 30 minutes of "spine splintering", we saw another vessel on the horizon. The closer we got the more interesting it looked. When we got close enough to scope the other boat with our binoculars, we discovered that it was a "snapper boat". We then watched the vessel leaving a rig and more to another and begin circling it. They appeared to be interested in tying up to the rig. After a few minutes, they apparently changed their minds. They then started moving in the direction of another group of rigs. At around 10:30 a.m., we were sticking out like a sore thumb, so we made the decision to go ahead and board the vessel to make sure every thing was on the up and up.

Upon being put off on the vessel, I noticed that all of their fishing equipment was baited up and ready to go. I also spotted a shrimp basket laying on the floor with 4 Red Snapper in it. After ensuring that the fishermen had all of their required licenses, I checked their hold. Inside were 35 Red Snapper that had been gutted and put on ice. At that point, Lt. Martin and I wrote all three fishermen citations for taking Red Snapper in the closed season. We also issued them civil restitution citations for the fish.

At least some good came out of this patrol. I’m not too ashamed to say that for three days after, both Lt. Martin and myself felt like we had gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. I think several other cases of over-zealous fishermen are to be made at the beginning of each snapper season. Let’s just wait for the winds to die down.