Newest Pogey Boat Dump Attracts Ire of Leisure Fishermen in Louisiana

As the controversy rages on whether or not or to not scale back leisure anglers’ day by day bag restrict and dimension restrict on redfish, Louisiana anglers are beginning to ask, “Why us? Why not them?” The “them” they’re referring to is the Menhaden fishing firms that harvest hundreds of thousands of kilos of menhaden per yr. The most recent occasion that has enraged leisure fishermen and conservation teams just like the Coastal Conservation Affiliation (CCA) occurred inside a span of 4 days. Allegedly two menhaden fishing firms dumped what’s estimated to be 850,000 fish alongside the shoreline of Cameron Parish in Southwest Louisiana. The rotting floating islands of fish washed up close to Holly Seaside and after examination confirmed that among the many menhaden had been tons of of redfish which LDWF has labeled as “Overfished” and is trying to enact restrictions on leisure fishermen.
These “pogey boats” as they’re referred to in Southeast Louisiana, are killing 1000’s of redfish a yr, on account of Louisiana’s relaxed restrictions on how near the shoreline the vessels can traverse. The nets that the menhaden boats use stretch anyplace from 1,400 to 1,600 ft and catch the whole lot and something of their path together with redfish and speckled trout. The sight of lifeless fish floating alongside the coast from these pogey boats is an all-too-familiar sight for leisure fishermen who fish alongside the Louisiana Shoreline

The 2 firms below scrutiny are Omega Protein and Daybrook Fisheries, two foreign-owned firms that function out of Plaquemines Parish in Southeast Louisiana.
In 2020, a invoice was voted down that will have enacted a one-mile menhaden fishing “exclusion zone” alongside the complete Louisiana shoreline. This buffer would have mimicked the restrictions that Mississippi and Texas have in place.
Menhaden trade backers say menhaden fishing creates jobs in what are economically deprived coastal communities. Whereas biologists with Wildlife and Fisheries stated that the bycatch of fish apart from menhaden is comparatively low and account for lower than 2% of annual speckled trout and redfish landings in Louisiana waters. However in line with the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the full bycatch could also be a lot larger. NOAA stated that the trade’s annual Gulf-wide bycatch of all species may very well be as excessive as 60 million kilos.

A witness to the latest flotilla of lifeless fish posted on social media that he counted 338 lifeless redfish between Rutherford Seaside and the west washout of Broussard Seaside in Cameron Parish. David Cresson, CEO of the Coastal Conservation Affiliation of Louisiana has been a vocal critic of the pogey boats alongside the Louisiana shoreline and stated, “338 lifeless redfish! Pogie boats from Omega and Daybrook prompted this, but we leisure anglers are the one ones having our laws modified. The trade will simply carry on crushing redfish on our seashores. They set their nets greater than 10,000 occasions a yr on our shorelines. What number of redfish are they actually killing? We want a one-mile buffer to cease these boats from fishing on high of our redfish spawning areas.”
Louisiana leisure fishermen appear to be a constant goal of tightening laws for Wildlife and Fisheries. In 2022, the Division introduced the primary ever in state historical past, closed season on southern flounder. In response to LDWF the season closure was essential to get better the inventory of southern flounder. As soon as once more they blamed leisure fishermen who supposedly had overfished the flounder based mostly on outcomes from their inventory evaluation. The season closure stretched from Oct. 15 to Nov. 30 and is scheduled to stay in place till 2028.
In February, the Louisiana Senate rejected a proposed regulation by the Wildlife and Fisheries Fee (WLF) that will have dropped the day by day bag restrict for speckled trout from 25 to fifteen and elevated the scale restrict from 12 inches to 13.5 inches. After failing to cut back the trout restrict, the WLF turned its sights to lowering the redfish limits. In July, the Fee adopted a Discover of Intent (NOI) to alter the redfish dimension restrict from  16 inches to 18 inches. The day by day take and possession restrict would have been modified from 5 to 3 fish per day.

For many leisure fishermen, there’s no thriller as to why the blame at all times falls on the Sportsmen of Louisiana; we merely haven’t any lobbyist or anybody who has the clout or cash to swing choices in our favor. Jim Bates of Lacombe, La is one among many leisure anglers who’s bored with the business trade going untouched. “Why is Louisiana the one state to nonetheless enable this type of factor to happen? After I spoke with Wildlife and Fisheries a number of months in the past simply after they put out their biased survey they stated the previous information stated that the pogey boats don’t have a lot bycatch. That’s loopy to me! Each time their nets cut up open 1000’s of bycatch fish are washed ashore. Observe the cash. Sure people are lining their pockets with cash whereas our fish assets are declining,” Bates stated.

Because the battle ensues lawmakers have an uphill battle forward of them because the menhaden trade in Louisiana accounts for a complete of 611.9 million kilos of fish harvested annually. That’s greater than the full kilos of shrimp, oysters, blue crab, and crawfish mixed.