Unhappy with an emergency rule change last year designed to cut their annual Spanish mackerel harvest roughly in half, Alabama's gillnetters have asked state officials to loosen the rules, a change they say is needed if their industry is to survive.
Meanwhile, the Coastal Conservation Association will try to have a bill introduced in the state Senate in coming days that seeks to outlaw gill nets in state waters altogether.
A similar measure introduced last year failed.
Prohibited from fishing for mackerel between every Thursday night and Sunday night since April 2007, Alabama's 105 net fishermen are asking to be allowed to fish in places that have long been off limits for much of the year, including more than half of Mobile Bay and the state's most popular stretch of Gulf beachfront, from Old Little Lagoon Pass to the Florida line.
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