Comment from Ryan Jones, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks

I am currently employed with the Mississippi Dept. of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks as a fisheries biologist. However, from April 06 to Nov. 07, I was employed as a marine fisheries observer for the NOAA Galveston laboratory. I saw the red snapper, vermilion snapper, red and gag grouper fishery first hand. The single most destructive component of the grouper fishery, in my opinion, is the longline fishery. Some fishermen do it right, but others cut up short grouper (maggets) as bait. My suggestion is to take a longer look at the longline fishery and impose regs on them. An example might be longline length. Research must be conducted, but I think one nautical mile should be the maximum length of any bottom longline gear. The longer gears take longer to process and ultimately end in a larger bycatch mortality. Just a thought, good luck