Snap To It

June 1 marks the much-anticipated opening of red snapper season in the Gulf of Mexico. Bold dispositions, feisty fighting ability and simply delicious filets make these ruby scaled delights a prized catch from Florida to Texas.

On reefs, rock piles, wrecks and drilling rigs, red snapper are generally a straightforward species that responds aggressively to just about anything that looks edible. The complicated part is the regional regulations. In a nutshell, the National Marine Fisheries Service (aka NOAA Fisheries) manages red snapper in federal waters, while states have management authority inside their boundaries of 9 nautical miles from shore.

A couple of the Gulf states...