Saving Seafood

Crabbers: Blue crab moratorium will hurt workers, customers

February 21, 2017 — Beginning February 20, Louisiana will enact a first-ever, statewide closure of blue crab fisheries. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says the crab stock is dangerously close to over-harvest and this break will give the population more time to grow.

The harvest restrictions are for immature blue female crabs, except those being held for processing of softshell crabs. According to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, the restrictions should help reduce the fishing pressure on the blue crab stock and encourage a stronger population when the ban ends March 21, 2017.

The statewide shutdown of the Louisiana crab fishery is new, and crabbers say holding the ban in the spring leaves many of them without work. Crabbers also argue it leaves customers without a Lenten favorite.

Crab will not be completely missing from local menus or markets. Crab from outside Louisiana will still be available, although crabbers said they predict the price for blue crab meat will increase and could come at a lower quality.

The 30-day closure of the commercial harvest and the use of crab traps will go into effect in 2017 and last through 2019.

Read the full story at WWLTV

If oysters are polluted, what about the fish?

February 10, 2017 — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has sent out a number of releases over the past year about oyster harvesters getting busted pulling up the mollusks from polluted waters. That’s a disturbing trend for consumers who like to like to get a fix on Friday nights from their favorite oyster bars.

But it’s also concerning for South Louisiana’s recreational anglers, who regularly fish the same waters that host polluted reefs. One such bust occurred last month in Hopedale’s Lake Robin, which is heavily fished in the spring, fall and early winter.

But Gordon Leblanc, who administers the molluscan shellfish program for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, said just because an area’s oysters are polluted doesn’t mean its fish necessarily are.

“The water goes through a fish’s gills, and the fish is able to move around,” Leblanc said. “An oyster is a filter-feeder. Everything that passes through him goes through his digestive tract.

Read the full story at The Times-Picaynne

LOUISIANA: New LDWF boss Jack Montoucet outlines plan, moves into new office

February 1, 2017 — Jack Montoucet has been fighting fires for a long time, first when he was chief of the Lafayette Fire Department, then operating a alligator farm, and, for the past nine years, serving in Louisiana’s House of Representatives.

Now the 69-year-old Marine Corps veteran — and if you count back those years you come to know he spent some time in the Far East — then you know he’s been under fire for virtually all his adult life.

Why then, when asked by Gov. John Bel Edwards to step down from the State House into a firestorm as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, did Moutoucet agree to take that job?

In a few words, Moutoucet said he’s interested in Louisiana’s outdoors resources. He said that was made more a priority after working closely with the LDWF over the years with what’s become a blueprint for the successful recovery of what was an endangered species, the Louisiana alligator.

Read the full story at The Acadiana Advocate

Commercial fishing to open for large coastal sharks

January 30, 2017 — The commercial fishing season for non-sandbar large coastal sharks will open in Louisiana waters at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 1.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico will also open at that time. The commercial season will remain open in federal waters until 80 percent of the federal quota has been harvested or is projected to be harvested in the Gulf.

Read more at WWL.com

LOUISIANA: State’s gray triggerfish season will remain closed for 2017

December 19, 2016 — Louisiana’s season for recreational harvest of gray triggerfish will remain closed in state waters for all of the 2017 season.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says the season was originally scheduled to re-open Jan. 1, however the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries announced that accountability measures are being enacted which led to a closure of the entire 2017 season in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. They asked that Louisiana state waters also remain closed for that period.

NOAA Fisheries has estimated that the adjusted annual catch limit of 201,223 pounds for the Gulf in 2016 has been exceeded by 221,213 pounds.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Daily Comet

Louisiana fisheries secretary says governor forcing him out

December 19th, 2016 — Louisiana’s wildlife and fisheries secretary says he’s being forced out of his Cabinet position by Gov. John Bel Edwards, months into the secretary’s work to correct widespread financial problems identified by auditors.

Charlie Melancon, leader of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said Friday he was asked by Edwards’ chief of staff Ben Nevers to leave the office in mid-February. Melancon says he wasn’t given a reason for his forced exit.

Melancon has clashed with recreational fishermen, and drawn criticism for agency changes he’s pushed after auditors found shoddy management of agency finances under his predecessor in the previous governor’s administration. 

Edwards spokesman Richard Carbo said needed agency reform “took a backseat to unnecessary public battles from the secretary,” so Edwards decided to “move the agency in a different direction.”

Read the full story at WWL.com

LOUISIANA: Social media erupts over plan to kill fish-tagging program

December 1, 2016 — Louisiana’s recreational anglers have been in an uproar since learning Wednesday morning that the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries intends to do away with its popular fish-tagging program. Social-media users have been blasting the department’s administration, especially Secretary Charlie Melancon and Assistant Secretary Patrick Banks, who runs the Office of Fisheries.

The story posted Wednesday on NOLA.com that announced the change has been shared all over Facebook, with frustrated anglers commenting to express their exasperation with the agency and its leaders.

Following are some of the comments:

Kyle Jon Johnson: Wow. “The program provides no meaningful data” ?!?!? How is that dude (Banks) even in that position?

Steve Kissee: Not about the money. Looks like it’s personal now for Melancon! Classic political maneuver.

Mike Daney: I got my first tag kit in the other day. Haven’t even used it. Really disappointed.

Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune

Top official ‘disturbed’ after Louisiana wildlife and fisheries audit finds widespread financial issues

November 15th, 2016 — Louisiana’s wildlife and fisheries secretary said he’s ordered a “complete internal review” of his agency’s operations after auditors found questionable spending, missing state-owned property and shoddy management of finances under past leadership.

“I was very disturbed to learn that (the department) deviated from its core mission and best management practices,” Charlie Melancon, who took over the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries this year, wrote in response to an audit released Monday.

The review by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera’s office details widespread financial issues across the department under Melancon’s predecessor, raising questions about millions of dollars in spending. For example, auditors say Gulf oil spill recovery money intended for fish testing instead paid for unnecessary iPads, cameras, boats and now-missing fishing equipment.

Draft audit findings had been previously reported by The Associated Press in September. Purpera’s office released the official report publicly Monday, which included Melancon’s response.

The publicly-released audit toned down language used in the draft version that had suggested the fish testing program was so mismanaged that it “cannot ensure that the work accomplished was sufficient” to declare the seafood was safe. Instead, the final version cites a 2015 state health department report that said the sample results found substances that “were below concentrations that could potentially threaten the public’s health.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Advocate 

LOUISIANA: Wildlife & Fisheries spent less BP money than it had access to, former secretary’s attorney says

November 3, 2016 — An attorney for former Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham sent a vigorous defense to the state’s Legislative auditor Tuesday arguing that no significant money was wasted by the agency in the months following 2010’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Department practices, especially related to seafood testing and spending habits, during Barham’s tenure have been under investigation by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera, and preliminary reports have been leaked to the media. Purpera’s office gave Barham until Tuesday to respond to its second preliminary draft report, and in that 11-page defense, attorney Mary Olive Pierson criticized Purpera’s office for conflating how the agency spent BP’s money with a misappropriation of state dollars.

Seven months after the spill, BP and the state of Louisiana agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding, under which the oil company would provide up to $18 million for the department to conduct tissue sampling on fish to determine if Louisiana seafood was safe to consume.

Read the full story at The Times-Picayune

LOUISIANA: Man jailed after taking undersized redfish, LDWF says

November 2, 2016 — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says it busted a previous fisheries offender this weekend for taking undersized redfish, and booked him into the Plaquemines Parish jail.

According to a department news release, agents made contact with Jonathan Ragas, 54, of Port Sulphur, Sunday near Azalea Drive. When Ragas saw the agents approaching, he picked up a five-gallon bucket containing an unknown number of redfish, and threw most of them in the water, the release said. Agents quickly seized the bucket, and found it to still contain two redfish that were shorter than the state’s 16-inch minimum length requirement, according to the department.

Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune