Baton rouge Archives - Saving Seafood

Louisiana Seafood Leaders Come Together After Hurricane Ida To Pave a Path Forward

October 13, 2021 — For almost two hours Louisiana’s seafood leaders from all sectors of the industry gathered via zoom, mobile phones at restaurants or in cars, and in a conference room in Baton Rouge to discuss the damage of Hurricane Ida’s wrath on the State’s seafood industry. The consensus; the hurricane laid a path of destruction that has crippled almost every sector.

“It is pretty bad,” said Louisiana Crab Task Force chairman Britney Breaux. “Bayou LaFourche is completely destroyed. The docks are completely gone, 47 boats have been sunk and there is no ice or clean water. The bayou is filthy and littered with trees everywhere.”

“The purpose of this task force is to help the seafood industry recover from this historically damaging storm,” said Harlon Pearce of the Gulf Seafood Foundation. “Twenty years ago after Hurricane Katrina we formed a similar group. Our purpose today is to replicate the success we had then.”

The group was gathered under the umbrella of a joint effort between the Gulf Seafood Foundation, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), Louisiana Sea Grant and Louisiana Ag Center at LSU. It was comprised of representatives from finfish, docks, bait dealers and marinas; as well as American Shrimp Processors’ Association, Omega Protein, Oyster Task Force, Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, Shrimp Task Force, Crab Task Force, Coastal Conservation Association, Louisiana Shrimp Association, LSU Department of Agriculture Economics and Agribusiness, Louisiana Charter Boat Association, LSU Sea Grant, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, NOAA, Shell Oil, Louisiana Restaurant Association and the Gulf Seafood Foundation.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

LOUISIANA: Red snapper presentation tops LWFC agenda

April 6, 2017 — Although listed among the items deep into the agenda for the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, the entitled “Receive input on Red Snapper Management from members of the Louisiana commercial, charter, and private recreational sectors,” likely will highlight Thursday’s monthly meeting.

Chairman Chad Courville is scheduled to open the meeting at 1:30 p.m. in the Louisiana Room of state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.

It was Courville who asked for the red snapper presentation saying he and the other six commission members needed further delineation on the wants and needs of these user groups in order to determine the future of the state’s approach to red snapper management.

In another top item, the LWFC will call on State Shrimp Program manager Jeff Marx for a presentation on the program’s operation, then discuss the possibility of a special late April meeting to set the spring inshore shrimp season. For most of the past 40 years, the commission met in the first week of May to consider the spring season’s opening dates in three coastal zones.

The LWFC will also receive final public comment, then undertake formal adoption of the 2017-2018 hunting seasons and regulations for resident and migratory game, and dates and rules for the same time frame on the more than 1 million acres of state wildlife management areas and federal lands.

Read the full story at The Advocate

LOUISIANA: Charlie Melancon out as Louisiana wildlife and fisheries secretary

December 15, 2016 –BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana’s wildlife and fisheries secretary, Charlie Melancon, is leaving his leadership post after a short tenure marked with controversy.

Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a statement Wednesday saying: “Charlie and I have agreed that we should move the agency in a different direction.”

A former congressman, Melancon has clashed with recreational fishermen and Republican U.S. Rep. Garret Graves since taking over the job when Edwards’ term began in January.

Melancon’s also run into controversy about programs he cut and changes he made in response to a legislative audit that found shoddy management of agency finances under Melancon’s predecessor.

Melancon hasn’t commented publicly about his exit.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KTBS

LOUISIANA: Reef fish dominated Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries commission meeting again

November 4, 2016 — With hunting seasons ready to hit full stride, fishing, once again, dominated Thursday’s Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting in Baton Rouge.

And again, the issues centered on red snapper, the proposed red snapper-takeover plan – also known as regional management – by each of the five Gulf States, and an update on gray triggerfish.

The discussion surfaced during an agenda item that called on Department of Wildlife and Fisheries veteran biologist Myron Fischer’s report on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s October quarterly meeting held in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Gray triggerfish came first: Fischer told the commission the latest data showed the species continues to hold “overfished” status, that the GMFMC discussed a one-per-day limit, a 15 inches minimum size limit and two closed seasons, the first in January through February and the second to run June through July for the recreational sector, and trip limits for the commercial sector.

Fischer said while public hearings will be held to get input on the species, there is the possibility recreational anglers will face a closed season on gray triggerfish throughout 2017.

Next up was the regional management issue and its relationship to the GMFMC’s newly formed Private Recreational Advisory Panel, a move proposed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ representative to the council, LDWF assistant secretary Patrick Banks earlier this year.

Fischer said the LDWF made a motion to charge the new panel with “management measures” to include “… more quality access to the resource in federal waters, reduce (undersized) discards, and improve fisheries data collection.”

Read the full story at The Acadiana Advocate

Report questions Louisiana fish safety testing

September 22, 2016 — BATON ROUGE, La. — Gulf oil spill recovery money intended for testing to ensure fish caught off Louisiana were safe for consumers instead paid for unnecessary iPads, cameras, boats and now-missing fishing equipment, state auditors said, calling the safety program so mismanaged it couldn’t even declare if the catch was fit to eat.

Energy giant BP PLC gave Louisiana millions of dollars for the program aimed at restoring confidence in the state’s multibillion-dollar seafood industry after a massive oil spill fouled the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. But auditors said they believe hundreds of thousands of dollars were misspent.

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office found “insufficient sampling of fish for contamination from the oil spill, excessive costs and missing property” in part of the $10.5 million BP-financed seafood safety program overseen by the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in the years after the spill.

A preliminary draft of the auditor’s report, which hasn’t been released publicly, was obtained by The Associated Press.

Beyond problems with the seafood safety program, the auditors say they found widespread financial issues across the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries: questionable purchases, free-wheeling spending with little oversight and missing fishing equipment, drones, guns and other items that belong to the state. And it said the department’s management and employees may have violated the agency contract with BP “and state law” in the fish testing program.

“Overall, our procedures identified a lack of management oversight over LDWF funds and operations,” Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera’s office says in the draft report, which notes the findings are subject to further review and revision.

Purpera said Wednesday the draft was being circulated for responses from agency officials. Changes could be made before the public release of the audit within the next two weeks, he said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KOAM

LOUISIANA: Red snapper dispute continued at Wednesday meeting

September 8, 2016 — 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.

“Existing NOAA data collection on red snapper stocks is unaffected by my amendment, and nothing precludes the federal government from sharing that data or existing research activities with the Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority to inform and assist with state management,” Bishop said in the letter.

Read the full story at The Times Picayune

Louisiana is only Gulf state not supporting regional red snapper management bill

July 18, 2016 — Louisiana currently stands alone as the only Gulf state indicating it would be unable to afford to oversee red snapper management if oversight authority of the fishery is ultimately stripped away from the federal government.

In interviews with LouisianaSportsman.com, marine fisheries representatives from the other four Gulf states have confirmed they are still supporting H.R. 3094 from Baton Rouge Congressman Garret Graves and had no reservations about moving forward because federal funding was stripped from the bill last month.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Charlie Melancon said in late June that he opposes Graves’ bill that would strip management of red snapper in the Gulf from federal authority and hand it over to the states. Melancon said his opposition stems from the lack of federal funding.

That wasn’t a concern for the other four Gulf states, however.

“Alabama is prepared to manage the red snapper fishery with or without federal funding. We still think state management is the best idea,” said Chris Blankenship, director of marine resources for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “A lot of the work we’re doing with red snapper, we’re already paying for out of our funds now and providing that information to NOAA for the stock assessments for red snapper.”

Read the full story at the Louisiana Sportsman

NOAA to hold public meetings on proposed sanctuary expansion

July 18, 2016 — BATON ROUGE, La. — Federal wildlife and fisheries regulators have scheduled two meetings in Louisiana to get feedback on their proposal to expand the boundaries of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will convene the public meetings on Tuesday, July 19, at the Hilton New Orleans Airport hotel in Kenner and on Thursday, July 21, at the Estuarine Habitats and Coastal Fisheries Center in Lafayette. Both meetings will be from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the LMT Online

Red snapper management would cost Louisiana $10 million-plus in first year, LDWF says

July 8, 2016 — If red snapper management is ultimately turned over to the individual Gulf states through Garret Graves’ bill currently moving through Congress, the program would come with a $10,039,000 price tag for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in its first year, according to the state’s head fisheries biologist.

The cost estimate was unveiled in Baton Rouge by LDWF Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fisheries Patrick Banks at Thursday’s four-hour meeting of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, where charter fishermen spoke out against the legislation and members of Coastal Conservation Association Louisiana voiced their support for the bill.

The commission took no action on the red snapper presentation or the cost analysis.

“We had a Gulf Council meeting break out,” David Cresson, executive director for CCA Louisiana, said after the meeting. “It was a bit surprising to see representatives from Texas and Florida — representatives of historically anti-recreational groups — show up to give their opinions.

“So it felt a lot like a Gulf Council meeting today. And all the arguments they made sounded just like at the Gulf Council every time.”

Read the full story at the Louisiana Sportsman

Snapper management tops Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting agenda

July 7, 2016 — The issue of red snapper and the development of Louisiana’s plan to manage red snapper for the private sector of recreationally caught red snapper is a top item on Thursday’s agenda for the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission.

The meeting is scheduled to convene at 9:30 a.m. at state Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.

Furor arose in the past two weeks after Louisiana Congressman Garret Graves’ sponsored bill calling for state management of red snapper for recreational anglers cleared the U.S. House’s Natural Resources Committee.

While not outlined specifically by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Secretary Charlie Melancon nor his staff, Melancon objected to the bill because it did not contain adequate funding for state management of the species.

Read the full story at The New Orleans Advocate