BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The commercial season for king mackerel will close at noon on Wednesday.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says it is closing state waters, and the National Marine Fisheries Service will close federal waters to commercial king mackerel fishing at the same time.
The decision is based on data indicating that the 1 million pound annual quota for the Gulf of Mexico's western zone will be met by then.
About 800,000 to 900,000 pounds of the fish are landed each year at Louisiana ports. Most of the fish are shipped to markets in the Northeast.