Tag Archives: Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission
Louisiana pogy industry faces backlash as reports show more massive fish spills
When a menhaden ‘mothership’ and its net boats spilled a million fish and left the floating mass to rot off the Louisiana coast, the menhaden industry attempted to ease public outrage and calls for tougher fishing rules with assurances that such incidents hardly ever happen. Nine million wasted fish might seem like a lot, but not when compared with the overall menhaden population, which is immense and shows no signs of decline, said Ben Landry, a spokesperson for Omega. “Sounds like Chicken Little to me,” he said. “This is a fish that numbers more than 100 billion in the Gulf. And there’s concern for 9 million fish? That’s a bit hyperbolic.” photos, more, >>click to read<< 11:48
Spring Shrimp Season to Open in a Portion of Louisiana Inshore Waters May 1
Today, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission convened a special meeting to consider setting the opening of the spring shrimp season in a portion of state inshore waters. The Commission set the opening based on information provided by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists and public comments. The Commission set the season as follows: >click to read< 10″22
Louisiana spring shrimp season late this year
While water temperatures are rising across Louisiana’s coast, it appears the unusually high and prolonged levels in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, the other bayous and rivers flowing into coastal waters has delayed the growth of brown shrimp in these estuaries. With these and other factors influencing the recruitment into and growth of brown shrimp in the state’s “inside” waters, the opening of spring inshore shrimp season will be extraordinarily late this year. >click to read<09:29
La. shrimp industry representatives welcome Trump tariffs, Other U.S. seafood interests oppose
Louisiana shrimp industry representatives welcomed the Trump administration’s announcement today that it will impose tariffs on Chinese seafood imports. Members of the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force, meeting in Houma, said they are considering a push for similar 10 percent tariffs on other top countries that send shrimp to the U.S., including India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Shrimpers in Terrebonne, Lafourche and across the U.S. coast have long complained that a wave of cheaper, mostly farm-raised imports has made it difficult for domestic shrimp fishermen to compete. About 90 percent of shrimp consumed in the U.S. is imported. >click to read<09:01
Fishermen roll out for early Louisiana inshore shrimp season
It began as a trickle of boats late Saturday and early Sunday, heading out to favorite shrimp-hunting spots in the lakes and bays of Terrebonne and Lafourche, where they waited for the time to lower nets like horses at their starting gates. Then at 6 a.m. Monday the booms splayed out and the trawl doors splashed, marking the start of the 2018 Louisiana inshore shrimp season. Until now they called it the “May season.” when brown shrimp were moving from estuaries toward the Gulf of Mexico, and it would be one span of a few weeks in which to catch them. >click to read<09:00
Bayou Region Shrimpers hope blessings are on the way
A blessing of boats in Chauvin Sunday marked the continuation of a sacred tradition in the Bayou Region, as anticipation grows for word that the fleets of various communities can move out onto the water and lower their nets. If preliminary estimates continue on their course, that could happen sooner than later. Biologists for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reported at a meeting last week that early tests show the potential for a sizeable crop this year. >click to read<10:18
Louisiana’s 2017 inshore spring shrimp season set by commission
Louisiana’s inshore brown-shrimp season will have a staggered opening, beginning May 8 at 6 a.m. in Zone 2 and a week later, May 15 at 6 a.m., in Zones 1 and 3, after action taken Thursday by the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission. Those opening dates and times were recommended by department biologist Jeff Marx, who told the regulatory board brown shrimp have grown more quickly this year than usual due to warmer temperatures and lower-than-average rainfall. About 25 shrimpers in attendance Thursday, many of whom had addressed the commission, hailed the regulatory board’s decision to go with an earlier opening this year. Some felt the season should have been opened in April. click here to read the story 09:18
Bait company’s freezer nearly empty. Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission has declared an emergency!
The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission has declared an emergency so the state’s one menhaden bait boat can begin fishing two weeks early. Louisiana Bait Products LLC officials say the emergency is that they’ve sold most of the 5,550 tons harvested last year, and don’t want to run out. “We had a pretty start to the crawfish season, so we’ve been selling a lot of our offseason inventory this year,” agent Shawn Switzer said Thursday from the office in Abbeville. Co-founder Daniel Edgar estimated Friday that Louisiana’s crawfish, crab and catfish industries use 37,500 to 50,000 tons of bait a year. Most is trucked in from Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey. “We are going to run out of bait before April,” Edgar said. Read the story here 08:38
Louisiana: Des Allemands crab fisherman says state closure is unfair
With a fast flick of his hand, Whitney Curole sent a large blue crab sailing into a white plastic basket as he sorted the last of the prized crustaceans at his Des Allemands dock operation. The crab flipped itself upright and extended its open claws in attack mode for a fight it obviously didn’t win. But Curole said he opposes the politics that he maintained are hurting his business as a commercial fisherman. Curole continued sorting the catch just in from a Houma crabber, delivered shortly before the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC) closed the season on Monday (Feb. 20) for 30 days. The move also came with a year round ban on harvesting immature female crabs for commercial sale. Curole and LWFC agree crab numbers are down, but they disagree on why. Reaching into a box full of crabs, he withdrew several crabs with numerous missing legs. “These legs were eaten by fish,” Curole said displaying a crab with all its legs gone. “You leave them overnight in the traps and it will be full of them.” Read the article here 09:50
Red snapper dispute continued at Wednesday meeting
The war of words continued Wednesday during an all-day meeting in Baton Rouge designed to educate members of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission on red snapper management. A surrogate of Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, presented a letter declaring states would not be responsible for research funding under HR 3094, a bill authored by Graves and Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, that would transfer management authority to Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. That directly contradicted charges made by Charlie Melancon, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, that the bill became an unfunded mandate when Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, tacked an amendment to it. “Amending things to death is how you kill a bill,” Melancon told the crowd of industry leaders and interested anglers Wednesday. “What was done to (HR 3094) was an attempt to kill the bill.” But Paul Sawyer, Graves’ chief of staff, presented a letter, signed by Bishop, stating that his amendment merely banned the transfer of funds to the states for fisheries research because that research would continue to be conducted by NOAA Fisheries. Read the story here 12:31
Louisiana commercial crab fishermen will see conservation restrictions for next three years
Louisiana took another step toward a commercial crabbing season Thursday after the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission approved a proposal that would shut down crab fishing for 90 days over the next three years. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries crustacean biologist Jeff Marx told the commission Louisiana’s crab harvest is too high, and something needs to be done to protect the health of the fishery. “It’s not panic mode, but it is something we’re concerned about,” he said. Marx asked the commission to approve a department plan that would shut down all commercial crabbing for 30 days beginning the third Monday in February. The closure would be in effect in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Also restricted would be harvest of immature female crabs throughout the year, except for those that show signs of imminent molting. So-called “buster” crabs are important for the soft-shell-crab industry. Read the rest here 14:55
Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries commissioner dismissed for pushing red snapper resolution, she says
A former member of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission says she was dismissed from the regulatory board after putting forward a resolution that irked Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Charlie Melancon. Julie Hebert, who was appointed to the commission in October 2015 by then-Gov. Bobby Jindal, said she had received support from Gov. John Bel Edwards to have her term extended, but that was yanked after Hebert proposed a resolution supporting state management of red snapper. The resolution passed the commission unanimously in April. An avid recreational angler, Hebert said she’s been frustrated for years by what she views as federal mismanagement of red snapper. Fisheries biologists say the biomass of Gulf red snapper is higher than it’s ever been, and yet, recreational anglers have been squeezed down to annual seasons that are shorter than two weeks in federal waters. Read the story here 16:25
Overharvest means changes coming to Louisiana blue-crab fishery
Most bays and tidal lakes in Louisiana these days look like obstacle courses, where the first boater to make it across without wrapping a crab-trap line in his prop wins. Hard to believe that less than half a century ago, the crab trap hadn’t yet been invented. Now, they’re more prevalent in state marshes than mosquitoes. All those wire cages mean it’s getting harder for female crabs to run the gauntlet and make it to the salty waters of the coast to lay their eggs. As a result, Louisiana has seen a concerning decline in its blue-crab population, according to Jeff Marx, a crustacean biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Marx has spent two of the last 10 days explaining to two different boards the challenges currently facing Louisiana’s crab population. The first presentation was to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, the regulatory board that ultimately will make decisions on how to attack the problem. The second was to the state’s blue-crab task force, which serves as a policy liaison between the department and crabbers in the field. Read the rest here 15:11
Gov. John Bel Edwards appoints Telley Madina to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission
Commercial fishing interests have a new representative on the state board that regulates their industry. Gov. John Bel Edwards has appointed Telley Savalas Madina of New Orleans to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission. Madina, who will represent the commercial fishing and fur industries, replaces Nathan Wall, an alligator farmer from Springfield, who recently resigned from the seven-member board. Madina was executive director of the Louisiana Oystermen Association in 2010 and 2011 and is still a board member. He serves as CEO of Red & Blue Consulting of New Orleans. The Wildlife and Fisheries Commission sets policy dealing with recreational and commercial fishing, hunting and other outdoor activities. Read the rest here 09:34
LDWC approves fishing regulations out to 9-mile limit
Recreational and commercial fishermen will have no changes in daily nor sized limits and the state will not alter current federal commercial fishing regulations on the use of gear in state waters out to nine miles. The one-year rule pushing state boundary waters out to nine nautical miles from the state’s wildly meandering coastline was given Congressional approval in December. In some cases, state laws governing gear use by commercial fisheries were more strict than federal laws. Thursday, during the state Wildlife and Fisheries Commission’s monthly meeting, the LDWC unanimously approved a resolution to apply state recreational regulations and retain federal commercial fishing regulations out to the nine-mile limit. Read the rest here 07:41
Commission denies Barham authority to open white-shrimp season
In an unusual move, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission denied a request from the agency it manages to grant authority to Sec. Robert Barham to open the inshore white-shrimp season. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Jeff Marx asked the commission to allow Barham to open the season if agency research showed white shrimp of a marketable size in Louisiana’s marshes before the Aug. 6 commission meeting. Read the rest here 16:49
Louisiana Sets 2015 Spring Shrimp Season
The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission announced the opening date for the 2015 Louisiana spring shrimp season. The spring shrimp season was set based on information provided by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists and on public comments. LDWF provided projections of the dates when a minimum of 50 percent of the inshore brown shrimp population would reach sizes of 100 count per pound or larger. Read the rest here 17:33
LDWF reminds Louisianians that Inshore Shrimp Season remains closed – To reopen certain inshore and GOM waters
Although the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission will meet August 7 to consider opening dates for the fall inshore shrimp season, the inshore shrimp season still remains closed. However, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) officials did announce Thursday the re-opening of certain state inshore and Gulf of Mexico waters that were previously closed due to oiling from the . Read more here 17:55
Macaluso: Years have changed Louisiana shrimp plan
Back then, as many as 100 shrimpers expressed their opinions on what action the seven-member commission should take for those all-important opening dates. Today, the process is so routine, so accepted, that it drew only two comments, and those came from Vermilion Bay interests, and one was about how much trouble abandoned crab traps cause Vermilion shrimpers. Read more here 18:43
Oyster lease bid plan unpopular with Louisiana’s oyster industry
A draft of proposed legislation to lift the moratorium on new oyster leases in Louisiana doesn’t even have a sponsor yet, but two provisions in it are raising the ire of the oyster industry. One provision would require bidding for new leases instead of the current process of leasing these state-owned water bottoms for $2 an acre per year for 15 years. The provision would apply only to new leases, not to renewals. Read [email protected] 17:59
Louisiana Fishermen want to see growth of oyster resource – Video
The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission recently announced opening dates for the oyster season this fall. Fishermen in Cameron Parish seem to be satisfied with the dates. But some would like to see management to allow growth of the resource and a better livelihood for fishermen. @kplc
Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission Sets Fall Shrimp Season
Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission announced the 2013 fall inshore shrimp season. [email protected]
Cool weather delays Louisiana inshore shrimp season
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — This has been the second-coldest spring in the last century, and as a result, brown shrimp have grown more slowly than the U.S. economy. That put the 
in a tight squeeze when setting the dates Thursday for the 2013 inshore shrimp seasons. continued
Louisiana Spring Shrimp Season Set To Open
KATC.com – The dates for the 2013 Louisiana spring shrimp season were announced at today’s meeting of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission. The spring shrimp season was set based on information provided by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists and on public comments. The opening dates for the 2013 Louisiana shrimp season are as follows: continued
