The explosion in the redfish population since the bans and limit reductions in the 1990s has taken its toll and probably having an ongoing negative impact on the blue crab population.
Redfish eat a lot more blue crabs than people do, and there are a lot more redfish than people eating crabs.
A larger redfish harvest would both be sustainable and help the blue crab population rebound. That's rather firmly grounded science.
Whether to accomplish that through increased commercial or recreational harvest is a political question.
I would prefer to see increased recreational limits on redfish both in state and federal waters. I would also like to see increased black drum limits both for commercial and recreational fisherman. Some way to thin the gafftop herd would also benefit blue crabs in Louisiana.
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