Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
A new showdown is brewing over Louisiana's controversial menhaden fishing, with another round set to play out later this week when state commissioners consider a proposal to again alter industry regulations. Recreational fishermen and conservation groups are girding for what they expect will be a proposal to partially ease the half-mile buffer zone off the coast where menhaden fishing is banned, the result of a painstakingly negotiated compromise last year. They say easing the buffer in those locations will damage Louisiana's fragile coast and ecosystem, while the industry argues that the current rules have eaten too deeply into their bottom lines, putting jobs and livelihoods at risk. Both sides will arrive at Thursday's meeting of the state's Wildlife and Fisheries Commission with scientific data in hand to back their positions. The details of what will be proposed are not yet clear, though clues have emerged. The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said it could not provide advance information on what will be proposed because the request for potential changes had come from Commission Chair Kevin Sagrera. It also did not respond to a public records request for the details. Sagrera did not respond to requests for comment. Sagrera, speaking at the conclusion of the commission's October meeting, surprised some by calling on the department's staff to come up with a proposal for altering the buffer zone for menhaden, commonly known as pogy. His request followed a recently completed study of the industry's bycatch, or fish killed besides pogies, that both sides held up as proof of their positions. "I’d like to charge the department on working with the menhaden industry and the rec(reational) industry on modifications to the menhaden buffer zone, leaving in place the enhanced buffer zones that we have right now and also looking at some of the historical fishing grounds that the menhaden industry has fished before that are important to them, see if they could be adjusted," he said. A vote to change the rules will set in motion a process that will include a public comment period and potential approval from state legislators before it becomes final. 'It wasn't enough' There is speculation that the proposal could reduce the buffer to a quarter-mile in certain locations off the coast, such as east of Grand Isle to the mouth of the Mississippi River, as well as areas west of Port Fourchon, while potentially increasing it in particularly sensitive locations. The current three-mile buffer off Grand Isle and one mile off Holly Beach -- two popular beach escapes -- look likely to remain in place, said Chris Macaluso of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. There may also be some additional protections proposed for around the Chandeleur Islands, he said. Macaluso's organization and others, including the Louisiana chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association, have spent the past few weeks mobilizing for Thursday's meeting, encouraging those concerned to show up. He and others argue that again allowing industrial-scale menhaden fishing closer to the coast will lead to more damage to the marine environment. "Our concern about a quarter-mile buffer has always been that it wasn't enough," he said. Francois Kuttel, president of the Westbank Fishing menhaden operation, based in Empire, said he has been consistently making the case to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries that the half-mile buffer was too harmful to the industry. He argues there is no data to show that reducing it in certain areas will cause real damage. "It has affected us materially in our volumes, and has hurt not only our employees in their remuneration, but it's challenged the profitability of the companies," he said. "It has had more of an economic impact than I thought it was going to have." The vast majority of the Gulf menhaden industry occurs off Louisiana. The small, oily fish is not eaten here, but instead ground up at processing facilities and used to make products such as pet food, supplements and fish meal for aquaculture. It is the Gulf's biggest commercial fishery, involving the use of motherships, purse seines stretching hundreds of yards and spotter planes. A series of spills involving millions of fish led to an outcry a few years ago, helping prompt the start of a quarter-mile buffer zone. Recreational groups pushed for one-mile buffer, but a compromise was reached at the behest of Gov. Jeff Landry in early 2024 that led to the current half-mile for most of the coastline. Other Gulf states, more dependent upon beach tourism, have stricter regulations. Louisiana's river-fed marine environment also provides ideal habitat for pogies. 'A step forward' The bycatch study was part of the compromise. It was funded by the state but carried out by an independent firm, LGL Ecological Research Associates, and broadly praised for its rigor -- though all sides involved in the debate highlighted different aspects of the findings. On the one hand, it showed that the industry's bycatch for certain popular species, such as redfish, was not as bad as some had assumed. The survivability of redfish released from industry nets was also high, helped by excluder devices that keep larger fish from being sucked up in hoses. As one example, the industry pointed out that redfish bycatch -- about 30,000 in 2024 -- was far below what was killed by recreational anglers, which was around 850,000. The study also noted that the industry's total bycatch for all species remained significantly below the 5% threshold in state law. But the bycatch numbers were still deeply concerning for recreational organizations on various levels, including the redfish numbers. They also pointed out the tens of millions of smaller fish, such as croaker, important to the food chain killed by the industry. Kuttel says the industry has also worked to improve excluder devices and spent significant money upgrading to stronger nets that have greatly reduced spills. Recreational groups argue the larger buffer zone has cut down on spills by reducing snags.
