Our summer appears to getting into one of those long, long hot ones, and with an early hurricane — Beryl is the name — likely heading into the Caribbean later this week, we now have to keep one eye on the thermometer and another on the tropics.
For now, shrimpers have been advised by Wildlife and Fisheries about a 6 p.m. Monday closure of the inshore shrimping in all state waters.
The exception is the open water in the Breton and Chandeleur sounds, a place called the “double-rig line” out to our state’s outside waters. This area will remain open until further notice.
National honors
Two Louisianans, Ryan Lambert and Martin Floyd, were honored in Washington last week during the National Wildlife Federation’s annual awards ceremony.
Lambert, who runs Cajun Fishing Adventures in Buras, received NWF’s Conservation Leadership Award.
Floyd’s work in the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service focused on coastal restoration and protection policy and projects earned NWF’s Volunteer of the Year Award.
Lambert’s recovery from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina launched him into a plan to help restore the vanishing marshes east of the Mississippi River. The NWF identified him as “a champion of coastal restoration in the Mississippi River Delta,” in his efforts to restore more than 2,000 acres of marshes near Buras.
“Ryan’s impact on coastal Louisiana is truly unmatched,” NWF president Collin O’Mara said. “Whether speaking to Congress or leading boat tours through the bayou, he’s been a tireless advocate for one of the most unique ecosystems in the country. His expertise and deep passion has made him an ideal spokesman for conservation efforts, offering an example that advocates nationwide can follow.”
Floyd’s award was for his years of tireless conservation efforts throughout our state.
“After a long career supporting wildlife in Louisiana, Marty’s impact only continues to grow,” O’Mara said in the announcement. “His ongoing efforts to study bird and butterfly populations has made an enormous contribution to citizen science on the Gulf coast, and his deep support of the Tunica-Biloxi tribe demonstrates a genuine appreciation of the tribe’s culture and historic relationship with local wildlife.”
Another winner
David Jones said it was hot and getting hotter when he made a decision to make “one more cast.”
Fishing from the side of the road near Leeville, that one cast make him a boat owner, because the redfish he caught had a special S.T.A.R. tag with the prize of a rigged-out 2024 23-foot AVID boat in the summer-long CCA Louisiana event.
The Destrehan fisherman is the second angler to take a top redfish prize, and both have come fishing the bank. Jones worked the beach at Elmers Island before heading up the bayou to Leeville.
It was the third tagged redfish caught this summer, but one angler was not registered for the S.T.A.R.
Houseboat lottery
An annual run on the mooring spots on two Main Delta and Wax Lake areas in the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area is open for the 2024-2025 hunting season lottery drawing that will take place after the application deadline of July 23.
Applications must be completed and submitted through Wildlife and Fisheries’ online system: louisianaoutdoors.com. You must log in or create an account with the agency at the same website.
Applicants must be 18 years old by Sept. 1, and they're limited to one lottery application per person per vessel. There are 69 available mooring spots, and there’s an $8.50 fee to file an application with additional fees to follow for those drawn in the lottery.
Stepping up
It might be the final fisheries push for Garret Graves, the Louisiana’s Republican congressman who has authored the Fisheries Data Modernization and Accuracy Act of 2024 — H.R. 8705. Graves announced he will not run for office later this year.
Testifying before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, American Sportfishing Association policy director Martha Guyas said recreational fishermen deserve more accurate surveys of fish stocks from federal fisheries managers.
“The uncertainty caused by the use of questionable fishery data to inform the status of fisheries and make management decisions can have severe implications for fish stocks, anglers, businesses, communities and the economy,” Guyas said.
In short, Gravres’ bill seeks reforms in the federal Marine Recreational Information Program — MRIP — which critics have shown produces inaccurate data with regard to recreational catches and the overall populations in some fish stocks.
ASA and other organizations have stated MRIP might be overestimating recreational catch by as much at 40%.
Guyas pointed out the bill would establish a panel of fisheries “experts” to improve MRIP data-collection, management and conservation rules established in the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act, the driving force in national fisheries policy.
The bill also would incorporate state data collection efforts, like Louisiana’s LA Creel, into fishery management plans in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific states, and include some third-party surveys for federally managed fish stocks.
“Through fishing license purchases, excise taxes and direct donations, recreational anglers and the sportfishing industry contribute approximately $1.7 billion toward aquatic resource conservation each year,” Guyas told the subcommittee. “These conservation benefits, plus the $148 billion economic impact of the industry, all rely on accurate data and effective management.”
Abandoned boats
BoatUS Foundation spokesman Bradley Weaver said nonprofit groups in Louisiana have until Aug. 12 to seek funds from a four-year $10 million federal grant to begin programs to remove derelict and abandoned boats from our waterways.
The Springfield, Virginia-based group indicated targets are the coastal waterways and the Great Lakes. The funds come from the federal Marine Debris Program under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
There are several steps to follow. For details, go to this BoatUS website: boatus.org/advgrant.