Yahoo! Yippee! Yeah, baby! It’s about time for that three-day weekend red snapper season with the generous daily bag limit of two fish per person and a 16-inch minimum size limit to open.

Oh, yes, my sarcasm meter is locked on high in that opening statement because the regulations are such a shame considering the number of red snapper swimming in the western region of the Gulf of Mexico. While the 2018 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marine fisheries’ estimate on adult red snapper in the Gulf was approximately 36 million, a recent independent study published March 24 estimated there are approximately 110 million (an estimated 29 million below Louisiana’s coast) red snapper at least two years old in the Gulf.

Why the discrepancy? More than 60 percent of the red snapper were counted in areas previously unchecked.

Nevertheless, Acadiana’s many offshore fishing enthusiasts will prepare for the season opener starting May 28, a Friday, in both state and federal waters off the coast of Louisiana. The season will remain open until recreational landings approach or reach the state’s annual private recreational allocation of 832,493 pounds. Last year the total allowable catch was 816,000 pounds.

Many Teche Area boats will leave from Cypremort Point to fish popular red snapper areas offshore in the Ship Shoal, Vermilion, Eugene Island and Marsh Island blocks. With the exception of Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend, they can fish only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. On those holiday weekends, they also can fish on Mondays.

Filling the two red snapper daily creel limit should be quick and easy. Area fishermen have reported beaucoup red snapper out there for years despite the federal government’s doomsday accounts about the collapse of the red snapper breeding stock.

It was a big relief a few years ago when the feds relinquished the power to set regulations and monitor the red snapper harvest to the individual coastal states. The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has made the most of working within the framework dictated by the federal government.

Perhaps it’ll all open up on the heels of the $12 million Great Red Snapper Count conducted by 20 scientists from 14 universities and NOAA. The study was released one month before the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council could have revised the quotas in April. Predictably, that didn’t happen.

The GRSC study — funded by $9.5 million from Congress, which voted for it in 2016, and approximately $2.5 million in matching funds from 14 universities — didn’t replace NOAA’s assessment from 2018. But it will supplement and enhance future analyses.

We can only hope longer red snapper seasons and increased daily creel limits are in our future. Two red snapper per boat has been a slap in the face to recreational fishermen around here for too long.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.