An urgent reminder that this Friday is the deadline for responses to the proposed Notice of Intent (NOI) to reduce the buffer zone for industrial harvest of menhaden (pogies) from 1/2 mile to 1/4 mile. Please read the following summary, then email your thoughts to: jadriance@wlf.la.gov
What’s at stake
While menhaden harvest has been around in Louisiana for many decades, in the past 20 years the harvest numbers have increased by over 40 percent. Louisiana is the ONLY Gulf state that doesn’t have harvest quotas or bans, and a buffer zone of less than one mile. In fact, Louisiana accounts for nearly 90 percent of the nation’s menhaden harvest! This has resulted in a decline of offshore menhaden both in numbers and average size. Despite the industry’s claims that “pogies are overrated as a forage species”, the truth is that, for numerous species, menhaden is their prime forage. We’ve seen a serious decline in the numbers of king mackeral, Spanish mackeral and other pelagic fish that depend on menhaden.
The industry claims that the “science” shows that the bycatch of breeding size red drum (over 30,000 killed each year) and mature speckled trout (240,000 killed each year), will not increase if the current buffer zone is moved inland from a measly 1/2 mile to a 1/4 mile. That’s not necessarily true either – it depends on the water depth. Regardless, it will NOT decrease the amount of bycatch – which is what our objective is.
* The official position of Fly Fishers International and the FFI Gulf Coast Council is that there needs to be a harvest quota of menhaden for Louisiana, much less than the current 1.3 billion pounds per year. This would protect the forage base as well as greatly reduce the amount of bycatch. *
In the meantime, this NOI must be defeated or we’ll have even higher numbers of redfish and speckled trout killed in sets.
What you can do
- Ask the Commission to OPPOSE this NOI to reduce the harvest buffer zone. Send the comments to jadriance@wlf.la.gov. If you submitted comments prior to January 5th, you must resubmit them again.
- Please contact your state legislators, and/or the members of the Legislative Natural Resources Committee. Here is a directory to contact legislators.
https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Bios.aspx?cid=H - If possible, attend the February 5th LWF Commission meeting at LDWF Headquarters in Baton Rouge.
Thank you kindly for your patience and persistence in protecting our marine fisheries!
