Pogy Boat Buffer Reduction LWF Commission Nov 6 - Be There

A reminder for all of you fine outdoorsmen that the LWF Commission hearing and vote on reducing the 1/2 mile buffer for pogy boats is this week, Nov 6 at 930. 2000 Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.

It’s important that people show up, even if you dont speak and just submit a card in opposition to the proposed change. The commissioners are sometimes very simple minded and will just vote based on how many cards each side submits, indicating how many people care enough to show up.

The commission chairman (Sagrera) is an alligator farmer and the main cost for alligator farming is food pellets made mostly of pogy meal. He is friendly with the pogy boats. After only 1 full season of the 0.5 mile buffer in place, the industry asked Sagrera to direct LDWF to reduce the buffer. What resulted is this hearing on Nov 6 where the 7 commissioners will vote on the fleshed out proposed new buffer where most of the 0.5 mile buffer would be reduced to 0.25 miles.

This matters because every inch closer to shore they fish, the more bycatch damage they do. They should be pushed out 1 mile or even 3 miles from shore, not allowed closer. A reduction in any buffer is going to increase the number of bull reds they kill. The LGL bycatch study made this crystal clear. Any of us would face a 150 fine and up to 60 days in jail if we harvested a bull red, but these guys kill over 30,000 every year and want to kill more by fishing closer to shore. They kill 240,000 speckled trout every year. Over 2 million croaker annually. All of these species have stocks that are critically low.

Louisiana is the only state in the gulf with virtually no restrictions on these boats and now they focus their harvest here intensely. Pogy is the most important forage for just about every other fish we care about from redfish to trout to tarpon and even yellowfin tuna in winter. In the 1960s only about half of the gulf pogy harvest came from Louisiana but today it’s almost 100% since FL, AL banned them, TX restricted to the point where they dont fish there, and MS has a full 1 mile buffer everywhere and around all islands. Every pogy plant has closed except for 3 remaining that process the 1 billion lbs caught annually in Louisiana.

Recreational anglers in LA harvest abut 35 million lbs of all fish species biomass annually. Shrimpers land about 60 million lbs annually. But the pogy boats remove over 1 billion lbs of the most important forage from our water. We used to have thriving populations of tarpon, but those are almost all gone. Tarpon only eat pogy when they migrate to the norther gulf every summer. They need the large schools, but since those are removed immediately as soon as a spotter plane sees one, the tarpon cant exist here like they used to. Large trout used to be more common, but no one has seen one hit the top 10 records list in almost 25 years. We reduced the limits of both reds and trout because those populations are falling rapidly and recruitment is at historic lows. All of this while recreational harvest biomass of reds and trout are at 4 decade lows. We dont have enough breeding stock of trout and reds, in other words. And guess what is the primary forage for breeding sized trout and reds when they spawn all summer… you guessed it, gulf menhaden aka pogy.

Showing up Thursday matters because the pogy industry is rich and in the pockets of important politicians. But this is a 90/10 issue - most people in Louisiana want the pogy boats gone. We have the power. But we have to take action when the opportunity presents itself. I look forward to seeing you there, please submit a card in opposition to the pogy boats. If you want to make a public comment, even better.


LWF Commission Meeting Details