BATON ROUGE- The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has announced the season for the recreational harvest of gray triggerfish will close in Louisiana waters Jan. 16.

The season will remain closed through Feb. 28. NOAA Fisheries announced that new regulations are being enacted to help rebuild the gray triggerfish stock.

According to the LDWF, the changes to the recreational season include an additional recreational fixed closed season from January 1 through the end of February of each year along with the currently established June 1 to July 31 fixed closed season.

Further changes enacted by NOAA Fisheries include size and bag limit changes which will also take effect in federal waters on Ja. 16. These changes include an increase in the recreational minimum size to 15 inches fork length and a reduction in the recreational bag limit to one gray triggerfish per angler per day within the 20-reef fish aggregate bag limit.