A team of Mississippi State University scientists is up to some fishy research along the barrier islands of Mississippi.
The university's Science and Technology Research Center, located at Stennis Space Center, is conducting surveys at Cat, Ship and Horn islands to determine the fishing pressure, the number of fishermen and total hours fished, along with the number and species of fish caught.
Results of the three-year project, which began last October, will help the state better manage the fisheries of coastal Mississippi.
Researchers are interviewing fishermen twice a week and conducting aerial surveys three times each month. Sponsored by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the project repeats an earlier study done in the 1970s.
"The main purpose for this study is to obtain additional data for better fisheries management," said Wendell Lorio, senior STRC research biologist. He said the surveys will be compared to the earlier research to determine whether present fishing regulations on the number of fish that can be caught per day and size limits need to change.
"We don't want to over-fish the resource, but there needs to be enough activity to make it a good fishery," said Lorio. "We're looking for the fine line where the most fish can be caught without damaging resources. At the same time, we don't want to waste fish by losing them to natural deaths because of inactivity."
Another advantage the project offers to fishermen is that it will provide information that will make their time in the water more successful. Not only will the study detail what species can be found at each island, but it will also indicate which island has the best fishing overall, at different times during the year.
"When we complete the surveys, we'll have a very accurate statistical map of the fishing success in the area," said Lorio. "The information we provide through this project should be very useful for the fishermen who frequent those waters."