JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Redfish are one of the most popular fish in Jacksonville. Redfish can range from one pound to 30 pounds, and they can be found in flooded grass, an oyster bar or off the beaches during spawn. But, they’ve been overfished, causing a reduction in population. And in recent years, Florida’s redfish population drastically declined as a result of water quality issues and loss of habitat.
On Thursday, the Coastal Conservation Association Florida along with the Duke Energy Mariculture Center and Mud Hole Custom Tackle released 8,000 hatchery-reared, juvenile redfish in the water at Mayport. The release completed its Northeast Florida redfish releases.
“We are excited to resume our ‘Release the East’ efforts and finish our Northeast releases in Duval County,” CCA Florida Executive Director Brian Gorski said. “In the past two weeks, in partnership with the Duke Energy Mariculture Center, we have released 20,000 redfish in Palm Coast, St. Augustine and Jacksonville, and we could not be more proud to continue our commitment to protecting and preserving Florida’s marine resources and revitalizing the redfish population along the East Coast.”
Last summer, Florida Fish and Wildlife passed changes to redfish regulations and management regions.
Under the new regulations, the off-the-water transport limit for redfish will be reduced from six per person to four. There are only three different redfish management regions now, the change establishes that these will be broken into nine smaller ones to reduce each region’s management to a more local scale.
Since 2018, CCA Florida and Duke Energy have released more than 226,000 redfish and spotted seatrout across Florida’s coasts to help provide abundant recreational fishing opportunities.