Megan Sorby is hoping to reignite commercial interest in red drum through her new company, Pine Island Redfish.
For over three decades, red drum – commonly known as redfish – has not been available to commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico after stock assessments found declining populations after heavy overfishing in the 1980s. In the span of a decade, the species disappeared from U.S. menus, and although there are a few aquaculture operations sprinkled across the U.S. South that produce red drum, their volumes are not large enough to support a national market.