Subsistence Fishing in the Pascagoula River and Estuary and Implications for Management

The Pascagoula River is located in the southeastern region of Mississippi and drains the Pascagoula Basin to the Gulf of Mexico.  Described as a National and State treasure, the river is the last remaining free-flowing large river system in the continental United States and one of the most heavily fished public water bodies in Mississippi.  Fishing is an important part of life along the Pascagoula, as evidenced by the vast number of ‘fish camps,’ marinas, houseboats, bait shops, and other fishing-related economic infrastructure.  The river and its estuary support good to excellent fishery resources, and most local residents have historical, cultural, social, and economic connections to these resources.  Correspondingly, there is considerable evidence of subsistence fishing occurring in the river and estuary.  However, in the past few years, the integrity of Pascagoula’s fisheries has been threatened by Hurricane Katrina, British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the United States Department of Energy’s Richton Salt Dome Project.  Destruction of non-mobile natural resources (e.g. the river and estuary and their associated fisheries resources) by such threats has the potential to sever these historical, cultural, social, and economical connections local residents have with their natural resources.  Therefore, loss of these connections could have detrimental consequences that include but also transcend access to food.  Before appropriate management approaches can be formalized, however, these vulnerable populations (i.e. subsistence fishers) must be recognized and characterized.  The first step towards incorporating subsistence fishing into formal strategies of management is the attainment of a fuller understanding of subsistence fishers, their activities, and their resources (fish stocks and environment).   The goal of this study is to determine a local definition of subsistence fishing for the Pascagoula River and Estuary that incorporates these three components.  This study will focus specifically on two subsistence fisheries:  channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) in the Pascagoula River, and blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) in the Pascagoula Estuary.