Texas Fauna Project

Red Snapper

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In 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck hard on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, devastating many ports and decimating the shrimp trawler fleet. Many scientists expected that the reduction in shrimping would lower the trawling bycatch of red snapper. However, Dr. Benny Gallaway points out that Katrina's impact on snapper was negligible, suggesting that there were other, bigger factors at play in the fluctuations in snapper numbers.