Gray triggerfish are a prized bycatch to red snapper fishing. Their delectable table qualities are evident in their nickname “armored snapper.”
The armor part of the nickname is a tribute to their tough, almost knife-proof skin and scales.
Gray triggerfish have always been part of the suite of fish caught by offshore rig fishermen, but not until a few years ago did they gain the esteem of those who like to eat their catch.
Most knowledgeable fishermen consider them better-eating than snappers.
Just about the time they got popular, federal fisheries managers clamped down on their harvest, to the bafflement of Louisiana anglers. No one was targeting them here, commercially or recreationally, and no one was coming in with ice chests full of the fish.
It turns out that gray triggerfish was following the pattern set first by king mackerel, followed by red snapper and gag grouper.
They are overfished off of Florida, and because scientist can’t find a genetic difference between the fish off of Florida and the fish off of Louisiana, they step on everyone’s heads — even those who didn’t cause the problem and those who don’t have a problem.
That approach and the now-preferred method of management using absolutely rigid yearly harvest quotas are the product of special-interest environmental groups, who policy-wise have become the tail that wags the dog.
The dog, of course, is the combination of commercial and recreational fishermen who for years were the only players in the game of who gets what fish.
In a climate in which overfishing of any species is viewed as a doomsday scenario, fisheries scientists set quotas at the most conservative (meaning lowest) levels that can be considered.
Federal fisheries policy makers, under threat of lawsuit from environmental as well as commercial and recreational interests, are jammed into a corner from which there is no maneuverability to allow people to keep fishing.
The very same gray triggerfish that anglers like the Meyerses and their guests kept last year for consumption must now be dumped back into the water.
Under the miserably low gray triggerfish quota, the feds determined that Gulf of Mexico recreational fishermen harvested more than their limits of the species in both 2013 and 2014.
Those overharvests (totally in other states, of course) now have to be made up in 2015. The result is an almost 11-month closed season, from Feb. 7 through December 31.
A normal closed season is June 1 through July 31.