re: Reminder: Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission Meeting Tomorrow

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Two years ago Blanchard voted for a one mile buffer.

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There is the drum I've been beating. There should not be 3 reps from commercial industry on the commission, thats too many, and they are automatically voting in thier best interests, so money and time only needs to be spent on the most likely to flip thier vote, in this case Blanchard, to give you 4-3.

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going to call him and see what changed his mind.

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Please do. He said in the meeting before his vote that the shrimpers association sent him a letter the day before that said they support the pogy boats fishing closer. The shrimpers do not want to see any regs on pogy boats because they think they will be next. It’s a blind solidarity of “commercial” guys against what they call “sports” anyone who cares about conservation.

Honestly I think everyone here would love to know why he changed his mind and why he would support the buffer reduction when it doesnt do anything but hurt bycatch, coastal damage, forage reduction, etc.

The real irony of the shrimpers relationship to pogy boats is that the same company that harvests 60% of the pogy (omega/cooke aquaculture) also owns the largest shrimp farms in Central America (seajoy). Louisiana shrimpers have no idea they are supporting a company that is actively trying to put them out of business. We are allowing the largest biomass of nutrient rich forage in North America to be taken without limit, without compensation, to feed aquaculture overseas including shrimp farms in Central America. All of that farmed product gets shipped back to compete against our wild caught shrimp. There are no shrimp farms in LA. It’s really sick the deeper you dig. If you get to talk to him, this should be something that is really driven home to him.

That would be Andrew.

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For:
Degrees
Martin
Wall
Blanchard

Against:
Walker
Reynolds
Brister

Side Note- Two years ago Blanchard voted for a one mile buffer. Apparently the pogey guys persuaded him to change his ways.

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So was Kevin Sagrera just the mouthpiece?

I tried finding their emails, but didn't find anything. I'd love to give them a piece of mind.

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How many pogey boats are involved?

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27 pogey boats working from 3 docks (Abbeville LA, Empire LA, Moss Point MS). 2 companies process the pogy, Omega and Daybrook. Omega is wholly owned by Canadian international aquaculture conglomerate Cooke Aquaculture and Daybrook is owned by Oceana, a South African international aquaculture company. Both have fish and shrimp farms all over the world. Their entire business is to harvest marine forage species (menhaden aka pogy and sardines) and use that as feedstock to farm shrimp and fish. It is far more economical to produce shrimp and fish this way, which is why we are seeing our local shrimpers suffer as foreign farmed shrimp floods the market here.

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How much money do they generate?

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They employ a few hundred people here in Louisiana as part of the operation. As large international companies the profits (and taxes paid on the profits) are not realized here in LA but instead likely in some other country with the lowest corporate income taxes. The only economic benefit they have for Louisiana is the employment. They do not pay a substantial amount of taxes here. In fact the plant in Abbeville has an industrial tax exemption on the facility so they don't pay property taxes there on the building, you can see this for yourself on the vermilion parish tax assessor website.

Those of us who are for conservation and limits placed on the pogy boats think the value of 200 to 400 mostly-seasonal jobs they create are not worth a fraction of the damage they cause to our coast. They kill more than 30,000 breeding bull reds every year. They kill 84 million croaker. They kill millions of trout. They kill tarpon. All as bycatch. And the worst part is they remove over 1 billion lbs of biomass from the marine food web annually. This is the largest handicap we face. Our trout and redfish populations are in serious decline (hence lower recreational limits, despite rec catch biomass being at 4 decade lows), the tarpon have disappeared from our coast, and many other fish populations have collapsed (king mackerel for instance have vanished and commercial harvest is 25% of what it used to be 2 decades ago).

Hypothetically if the pogy boats were gone today, as they are gone from TX, AL, and FL, our ecosystem productivity would boom like we've never seen in our lifetimes.

TLDR: Used some info from WizardSleeve and other sources to send an email to a couple friends who are state legislators. This needs to be out of the hands of the LWFC.

I wasn’t able to attend the meeting last Thursday, but as you may have heard, the LWFC voted for an NOI to reduce the Pogie Boat buffer back to ¼ mile. Commission Chairman Kevin Sagrera was basically just a mouthpiece for the pogie coalition. He only has commercial fishing industries best interest in mind. He was the one who directed the staff to redraw the maps along most of the coast to ¼ mile from the agreed upon ½ mile for the NOI.

The economic impact of the recreational fishing industry far outweighs the Pogie industry. The economic impact of recreational fishing is in the billions and the Pogie industry is around $400 million. Yet the LWFC commission is making decisions that prioritize the pogie industry over recreational fishing.

27 pogie boats work from 3 docks (Abbeville LA where Sagrera is from, Empire LA & Moss Point MS), and two companies process the pogie, Omega and Daybrook. Omega is wholly owned by Canadian international aquaculture conglomerate Cooke Aquaculture. Daybrook is owned by Oceana, a South African international aquaculture company. Both have fish and shrimp farms all over the world. Their entire business is to harvest marine forage species (menhaden aka pogie and sardines) and use that as feedstock to farm shrimp and fish. It is far more economical to produce shrimp and fish this way, which is why we are seeing our local shrimpers suffer as foreign farmed shrimp floods the market here.

The pogie industry employs 800 people here in Louisiana (per the Pogie Industry’s numbers) as part of the operation. As large international companies the profits (and taxes paid on the profits) are mostly not realized here in LA but instead in some other country. The only economic benefit they have for Louisiana is the employment. They do not pay a substantial amount of taxes here. Those of us who are for conservation and limits placed on the pogie boats think the value of at most 800 mostly-seasonal jobs they create are not worth a fraction of the damage they cause to our coast.

A 2024 study that thoroughly examined bycatch associated with the Gulf industrial menhaden fishery showed that more than 140 million non-target fish were killed along with menhaden by industrial vessels that year alone, including 22,000 breeding-size redfish (which are illegal to harvest by recreational anglers), 240,000 speckled trout, more than 80 million croaker, 25 million white trout, 5.5 million white shrimp as well as millions of other species like black drum, catfish, sharks, and rays. An additional 8,000 smaller redfish, Louisiana’s only saltwater gamefish, were killed and along with menhaden reduced by the industry into fish oil, fish meal, and other industrial products. The 2024 study also showed that bycatch of speckled trout, redfish, and other species increased in net sets made in water shallower than 22 feet deep. The worst part is they remove over 1 billion lbs of biomass from the marine food web annually. This is the largest handicap we face. Our trout and redfish populations are in decline (hence lower recreational limits, despite recreational catch biomass being at 4 decade lows), the tarpon have disappeared from our coast, and many other fish populations have collapsed (king mackerel for instance have vanished and commercial harvest is 25% of what it used to be 2 decades ago).

Hypothetically if the pogie boats were gone today, as they are gone from TX, AL, and FL, our ecosystem productivity would boom like we've never seen in our lifetimes. Why we continue to be the only state to allow them to damage our fishery is baffling. We are supposed to be the “Sportsman’s Paradise”. Instead our LWFC has made us the Pogie Industry poster child. The buffer should be increased to 1 mile at a minimum, but in reality we should outlaw the entire industry like other Gulf states have done. Even Mississippi was smart enough to at least create a 1 mile buffer zone.

Both of you understand the impact and importance of recreational fishing to our culture, way of life and economy as evidence by your attendance and support at the CCA lege rodeo. The recreational limits have been lowered in this state, yet we continue to allow outside interests to pillage our resources. We need to protect our fish populations. We need the legislature to step in. A bill was attempted in 2022. H.B. 1033, championed by Lafourche Parish Representative Joe Orgeron, had a bipartisan group of 14 co-sponsors in the House. Public support for the measure was overwhelming. So was support in the Louisiana House, which voted on April 27 to approve the measure 75-22. Then the Louisiana’s Senate Natural Resources Committee killed the bill that would have, for the first time, set a catch limit on nearshore industrial menhaden harvest. We need some champions for our recreational fishing industry, who are citizens of this state, to step up and put an end to the pogie lobby controlling the resource.