BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - The state of Mississippi is going to release cultured red snapper fingerlings Thursday in offshore waters on an artificial reef about two miles south of Horn Island.
The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources planned to release almost 500 juvenile red snapper into reefs this week.
The fish were produced at GCRL's Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center located at its Cedar Point site in Ocean Springs. Aqua Green LLC, a private company near Perkinston, is also involved in the program.
GCRL produces the larvae and juveniles while Aqua Green grows them to the fingerling stage for release.
GCRL and MDMR will conduct post-release surveys to assess the movement of released fish. The fish can be identified through detection of a coded-wire tag or genetic tagging.
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