Saving Seafood

LOUISIANA: Oyster shortage causes closed harvest areas

September 12, 2016 — GRETNA, La. — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says the state’s oyster industry is suffering and as a result, several harvesting areas will be off-limits.

WDSU-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2cjCgEK) that oyster season opened Wednesday in parts of Louisiana. However, a low oyster population is causing problems for oyster farmers.

Factors contributing to the low resources include too much fresh water in the areas in which the oysters grow and the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

Oyster farmer Matthew Lepetich says he believes the oyster stock never recovered after Hurricane Katrina.

LOUISIANA: Oyster farmers brace for slow season; shortages close harvest areas

September 8, 2016 — JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Oyster season opened Wednesday, but only in parts of Louisiana. Reports from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries do not look good for oyster stock or oyster farmers.

Louisiana is the biggest oyster-producing state in the nation. According to figures from 2014, it is a $317 million industry employing about 3,500 people. But the industry is suffering, and several harvesting areas will be off-limits because of shortages.

Factors contributing to the low resources include too much fresh water in the areas in which the oysters grow and the 2010 Gulf Oil spill, which has led to a steady decline in production.

“It’s getting worse and worse, and I don’t know where it goes from here,” said Matthew Lepetich, a second-generation oyster farmer and owner of Mato’s Premium Oysters. “I remember this time of the year, right after Labor Day, we were getting the boats ready and we were going to work.”

On opening day of this season, however, Lepetich was nowhere near the water, “because there’s no season. There’s no seed. There’s no oyster. There’s nothing, and it’s been that way for several years. Ever since Katrina, it never really recovered because Katrina knocked holes in the levee and they haven’t filled them,” he said.”

Read the full story at WDSU

LOUISIANA: Red Snapper Season Will Close September 5

August 29, 2016 — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) announced that the state recreational red snapper season will close at 11:59 p.m. on September 5, 2016.

Preliminary estimates from the LA Creel survey indicate that the Department’s self-imposed quota of 1,116,732 pounds of red snapper for the private and charter sectors of the recreational fishery is projected to be harvested by September 5, 2016. Closing the season in state waters avoids an overrun of the overall Gulf of Mexico recreational quota and allows the red snapper stock to continue rebuilding. The Secretary of the Department has the authority to re-open the recreational season, as has been done in previous years, for additional recreational harvest if finalized landings data indicate such harvest would be within conservation targets.

The state red snapper season, which opened on January 8, allowed anglers an opportunity to harvest recreational red snapper for 242 days in state waters.

Read the full story at The Outdoor Wire

LOUISIANA: Rescue in severe weather earns agent prestigious award

August 25, 2016 — The word ‘hero’ is sometimes thrown around too lightly, but no one can argue it doesn’t apply to Nicholas Guillory, a sergeant with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Enforcement Division. As many as eight people are alive today because of Guillory’s actions last September, and his courage earned him a commendation from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council last week in New Orleans.

During a severe thunderstorm almost a year ago, Guillory received a distress call from a boat taking on water in the Gulf of Mexico near Pecan Island. Conditions were horrendous, but Guillory decided to launch his 19-foot patrol boat and attempt the rescue anyway.

“As I traveled toward the Gulf of Mexico, I couldn’t even see the bow of my own vessel because the rainfall was so heavy,” he said.

Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune

Red snapper talk dominates Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting

July 21, 2016 — Red snapper again dominated the most recent Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting, and what proponents of separation of the recreational sector into for-hire/charter and private-angler groups called an “experiment” apparently will be become standard operating procedure.

The biggest news was the council backed a proposal by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to establish an Ad Hoc Advisory Panel for Recreational Red Snapper Management set to meet for the first time in January 2017.

This year marked the second year of sector separation (Reef Fish Amendment 45), which granted charters 47 percent of the annual recreational red snapper take from Gulf waters, and there was a three-year sunset provision at the outset. The most recent council vote extended the sunset provision to 2022. This, and all other actions like it, are sent to the U.S. Department of Commerce for review.

Read the full story at The Advocate

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

Louisiana Creel not enough to cover full snapper management, biologist says

July 6, 2016 — Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Charlie Melancon’s opposition to a congressional bill to hand over red snapper management to the Gulf states hinged on the bill’s lack of federal funding and what he estimated could be a $10 million annual price tag.

But that flew in the face of previous statements by his predecessor’s administration, which said in a congressional hearing that the agency had plenty of money for state management thanks to a saltwater fishing license increase instituted to fund the data-collection program known as LA Creel.

So who’s correct?

“Unfortunately, I would tend to say my current boss is more than likely closer to the truth,” LDWF Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fisheries Patrick Banks told LouisianaSportsman.com.

The reason is pretty simple, Banks said: LA Creel collects only one part of the data needed to perform full stock assessments necessary to effectively manage fisheries.

“LA Creel collects fisheries-dependent data,” the biologist said.

That includes information on recreational and charter catches, he said.

“What fish are caught, what types of fish are caught — stuff like that,” Banks explained.

However, LA Creel doesn’t capture any commercial landings, fisheries-independent data (think scientific sampling) or enforcement between state waters and the boundary of federal waters at 200 nautical miles.

And there probably just isn’t enough money in the program to cover those non-recreational aspects of management, he said.

Read the full story at Louisiana Sportsman

Governor of Louisiana opposes red snapper legislation transferring oversight

June 23, 2016 — Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and the state’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries published an open letter on Wednesday, 22 June stating their opposition to legislation proposed by U.S. Rep. Garret Graves (R-Louisiana) that would transfer oversight over of the Gulf of Mexico’s red snapper fishery from the federal government to those of the Gulf states.

In his letter, the governor said the legislation, H.R. 3094, would not provide funding to allow the state to responsibly manage the fishery.

“H.R. 3094, as recently amended by Congressman Bishop, would not transfer any federal funding to the states to conduct necessary stock assessments, research, data collection, or enforcement. Without federal funding, Louisiana could potentially lack the proper resources to manage the red snapper fishery,” the governor wrote.

“H.R. 3094 would not be a viable option for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. It would be fiscally irresponsible for the department to support any mandate that would result in an unknown amount of fiscal burden placed on the State of Louisiana for the management of a single species of fish,” the statement continued. “As a department, we are charged with managing our fisheries resources for optimum yield; the same applies to our fiscal resources.”

Gov. Edwards, a Democrat, said in his letter that he understood that “some of our user groups are frustrated with the current federal management of red snapper under the authority of NOAA Fisheries and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.”

Ewards said his administration remained, “committed to working with NOAA Fisheries, the Council and its members, and all interested stakeholders to ensure optimum utilization of and fair and equitable access to the red snapper resource.”

“The Department’s goal is to begin a collaborative dialogue with our state and federal partners to find a durable solution to these issues concerning management of the red snapper resource for the public good,” he wrote.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

LDWF Secretary opposes move to give Louisiana authority over red snapper

June 22, 2016 — Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Charlie Melancon stated Tuesday he is opposed to a push to transfer management authority of Gulf of Mexico red snapper from the federal government to the fisheries agencies of the five Gulf states.

Melancon said a bill proposed by Rep. Garret Graves (R-Baton Rouge) that’s currently making its way through Congress would grant Gulf states management authority without providing necessary dollars.

“Without federal funding, Louisiana could potentially lack the proper resources to manage the red-snapper fishery,” Melancon said. “It would be fiscally irresponsible for the department to support any mandate that would result in an unknown amount of fiscal burden placed on the state of Louisiana for the management of a single species of fish.”

Previously, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida had joined Louisiana in calling for NOAA Fisheries to surrender management control of the popular reef fish. Critics say gross mismanagement of red snapper has led to reduced fishing opportunities for recreational anglers. This year’s federal red-snapper season for recreational anglers was initially set at nine days, but was extended to 11 days after tropical weather kept many anglers at the dock.

Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune