Louisiana Issues Regulations to Protect Nearshore Habitat from Menhaden Industry

February 15, 2024

In the most significant Gulf menhaden conservation outcome to date, the state’s Wildlife and Fisheries Commission approves half-mile coastwide buffer prohibiting pogy boats from netting, increases fish spill penalties

(BATON ROUGE, La.)— Louisiana’s coastline, gamefish, and recreational angling opportunities will now receive greater protections from the industrial menhaden fishery, after the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission approved a revised Notice of Intent (NOI) at a Special Commission Meeting today in Baton Rouge.

The NOI expands the current ¼-mile no-fishing buffer zone, which prevents industrial menhaden harvest near the coast, to ½-mile coastwide, with a broader 1-mile buffer added off Holly Beach. It also establishes more stringent penalties and reporting requirements for future fish spills.

The commission initially decided to take action last October, suggesting a 1-mile buffer after 18 separate fish spills, accounting for over 2.5 million wasted menhaden and at least several hundred dead, breeding-sized redfish, occurred in 2023 alone. Most notably, three spills in early September fouled popular beaches and exacerbated user conflicts with recreational anglers and boaters, and again raised public concerns over the damage being caused to shallow waters by the menhaden industry. The industry firmly opposed the initial NOI.

Following a public comment period and a public hearing at the Feb. 1 meeting, the commission voted to again ask representatives from the menhaden industry and recreational fishing advocacy and conservation organizations to reach a compromise. The compromise modified the NOI to ½ mile, while retaining new penalties and reporting requirements for future net spills from the original NOI. The commission also voted to allow the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to implement the new regulations immediately, ahead of the menhaden season’s start on April 15.

“We were asked by the Commission and Governor Landry to get in a room with the industry and work on a compromise, so that’s what we did. As with any compromise, there is some give and take,” said Coastal Conservation Association Louisiana Chairman Charlie Caplinger. “That said, these new regulations on the industry are a very positive step forward for Louisiana’s coastal zone that will provide much-needed protections for our fragile shorelines and the fish and wildlife that live there. CCA and our coalition partners would like to thank Governor Landry, the Commission, and the new leaders at Wildlife and Fisheries for helping to facilitate this agreement.”

Gulf menhaden, also known as pogies, are a critical food source for iconic Louisiana sportfish like redfish and speckled trout. Approximately 1 billion pounds of pogies are harvested by the industrial Gulf of Mexico menhaden fishery each year, mainly from Louisiana waters. To date, pogy boats have been allowed to fish closer than 500 yards from Louisiana’s shorelines, where the boats often make contact with the water bottom while stirring up sediment with their massive purse seine nets, affecting feeding and spawning for a host of sportfish, birds, and dolphins.

A coalition of recreational fishing, wildlife and habitat conservation, and boating organizations has been working for five years to expand public awareness about the impacts of the Gulf’s industrial menhaden fishery and advocate for some basic conservation measures, such as the ones included in the NOI.

“Conserving and protecting Louisiana’s vast but diminishing coastal fisheries and critical barrier islands, beaches and marshes has been the goal of our coalition for the last five years,” said Chris Macaluso, director of the Center for Marine Fisheries for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “We have consistently worked with the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries staff, concerned anglers, charter captains, conservationists, lawmakers at every level, and the menhaden industry to enact meaningful regulations that can help accomplish that goal while recognizing the importance of commercial fisheries to Louisiana’s economy and culture. The Commission deserves a lot of credit for recognizing the validity of our coalition’s concerns and taking a big step forward in protecting Louisiana’s coast.”

In 2021, Representative Joe Orgeron (R-54) first introduced a bill in the Louisiana Legislature which proposed a nearly identical buffer to this NOI (HB 535). Due to industry opposition, the bill ultimately did not pass, but it did jumpstart a dialogue between the public, legislators, and other decision-makers about the impacts of intensive purse seine netting activity along Louisiana’s fragile coastline, and the impacts of bycatch on economically important species for other user groups, particularly redfish and speckled trout.

“For over three years, efforts have been made with little progress to get some common-sense regulations and policies put into place for the Gulf of Mexico reduction menhaden industry,” said Representative Joe Orgeron (R-54). “It now appears that these actions by the commission going forward will provide both increased scientific gathering on Louisiana’s largest fishery segment, as well as a better balance between the involved stakeholders for the upcoming 2024 season.”

“We commend the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission for this important step forward to increase the menhaden harvest buffer zone, as well as address the conservation and user conflict benefits that will come with it,” said Richard Fischer, CEO for the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, the nonprofit trade association that represents the best interests of Louisiana charter captains. “We also thank Governor Jeff Landry for exhibiting strong leadership by overseeing the brokering of this agreement, as well as Representative Joe Orgeron for being such a strong and vocal buffer zone champion in the Louisiana Legislature.”

The NOI will now go through a 30-day oversight period, where the joint Legislative Oversight Committees may choose to review it and make alternative recommendations. If they take no action, the NOI will be formalized as a final rule ahead of the 2024 menhaden fishing season.

Gulf Menhaden Coalition members include the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), CCA Louisiana, CCA Mississippi, CCA Alabama, CCA Texas, CCA Florida, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Louisiana Charterboat Association, American Sportfishing Association, National Marine Manufacturers Association, Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, International Gamefish Association, Angler Action Foundation, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Audubon Delta, Guy Harvey Foundation, Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, Mississippi Wildlife Federation, and Wildlife Mississippi.

Learn more here about the recreational fishing community’s push for better management of forage fish in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, and Chesapeake Bay.

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by: Dan Morgan

posted in: Recreational Fisheries

February 9, 2024

New Legislation Would Cement the Future of Crucial Conservation Programs

Lawmakers have introduced a bill to boost funding and provide vital enhancements to conservation programs benefiting fish and wildlife.

Today, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership celebrated the introduction of America’s Conservation Enhancement Reauthorization Act of 2024. The legislation would increase authorized funding levels and provide critical improvements to a wide range of conservation programs benefitting fish and wildlife such as the National Fish Habitat Partnership Program, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), the Chronic Wasting Disease Task Force, and the Chesapeake Bay Program.

The bipartisan legislation was introduced by Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)

“The reauthorization of the ACE Act will benefit fish and wildlife while enhancing outdoor recreation opportunities for millions of hunters and anglers,” said Becky Humphries, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, “We applaud Senator Carper and Senator Capito for their leadership on America’s Conservation Enhancement Reauthorization Act of 2024 and we look forward to building on the success of these crucial conservation programs.”

The ACE Act was originally signed into law in 2020 with strong bipartisan support and it cemented long-term funding for programs that improve fish habitat, restore wetlands, boost research into chronic wasting disease, invest in clean water solutions, and prevent bycatch fatalities of important gamefish species. This reauthorization of ACE builds on that legacy and makes critical improvements to programs that benefit fish, wildlife, and our sporting traditions.

Along with reauthorization of many important programs, the ACE Reauthorization Act of 2024 would:

Increase annual funding for the National Fish Habitat Partnership Program from $7.2 million to $10 million.
Better integrate fish habitat work through U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
Increase the number of eligible conservation projects by easing local cost-share requirements.
Provide dedicated funding for the National Fish Habitat Assessment.
Increase annual funding for the North American Wetlands Conservation Act from $60 million to $65 million.

The ACE Reauthorization Act of 2024 is supported by Ducks Unlimited, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the National Wildlife Federation, American Sportfishing Association, the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

TRCP works to maintain and strengthen the future of hunting and fishing by uniting and amplifying our partners’ voices in conserving and restoring wildlife populations and their habitat as challenges continue to evolve.

Learn more about TRCP’s commitment to healthy habitat and clean water here.

by: Dan Morgan

posted in: Recreational Fisheries

February 7, 2024

Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Extend Great Lakes Protections

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act would extend and increase funding levels aimed at safeguarding, restoring, and protecting the Great Lakes ecosystem and the commercial and recreational fishery it supports.

Yesterday, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Congressman David Joyce (R-OH) introduced the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act in the Senate and House respectively. The bill would reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) through fiscal year 2031 at $500 million annually.

Since its inception in 2010, the GLRI has served as a catalyst for federal action and coordination to protect and restore the Great Lakes ecosystem. This has included a five-fold increase in the successful cleanup of areas with extreme degradation, keeping over 2 million pounds of phosphorus runoff out of the Great Lakes, and protecting nearly half a million acres of habitat crucial to fish and wildlife. To accomplish this, the Initiative leverages investments, capacity, and collaboration across The Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of the Interior, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of State, Coast Guard, and Department of Transportation to safeguard, maintain, and restore the Great Lakes ecosystem.

“We applaud Senator Stabenow and Congressman Joyce for their leadership on the bipartisan Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act,” said Becky Humphries, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, “This important legislation will serve to foster, and fund continued federal agency collaboration aimed at safeguarding, restoring, and protecting the Great Lakes ecosystem and the nearly $7 billion commercial and recreational fishery it supports.”

With over 10,000 miles of coastline and 30,000 islands, the Great Lakes are a vital source of drinking water, transportation, and recreational activities for the 30 million people residing in the Great Lakes basin. As the largest collection of freshwater lakes on earth, they hold an astounding 95 percent of the United States’ surface fresh water.

The Great Lakes are also an economic powerhouse, supporting over 1.5 million jobs and contributing $62 billion in wages, with nearly $18 billion generated annually through fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching. However, years of environmental degradation have put this invaluable resource at risk, necessitating immediate action to preserve it for future generations. The extension and increased funding dedicated to The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative will help ensure that crucial efforts to protect our water can continue and that new and emerging threats can be confronted by increased agency collaboration.

Notably, the GLRI will be critical in preventing the spread of invasive carp and combating harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes which imminently threaten its nearly $18 billion fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching industries.

Click here to read more about Aquatic Invasive Species Solutions

In the Senate, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act is cosponsored by Senators Vance (R-Ohio), Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Young (R-In.), Duckworth (D-Ill.), Brown (D-Ohio), Baldwin (D-Wis.), Durbin (D-Ill.), Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Smith (D-Minn.), Peters (D-Mich.), Fetterman (D-Pa.), Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Casey (D-P.).

In the House, the bill is cosponsored by Representatives Huizenga (R-Mich.), Dingell (D-Mich.), Kaptur (D-Ohio), Moore (D-Wis.), Bergman (R-Mich.), Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Tenney (R-N.Y.), Steil (R-Wis.), Stevens (D-Mich.), James (R-Mich.), Miller (R-Ohio), Schneider (D-Ill.), Slotkin (D-Mich.), McClain (R-Mich.), Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Morelle (D-N.Y.), and Quigley (D-Ill.).

The GLRI Act is supported by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the American Sportfishing Association, the National Wildlife Federation, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, Great Lakes Commission, Alliance for the Great Lakes, League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, The National Audubon Society, Great Lakes Port Association, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Great Lakes Business Network, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Clean Wisconsin, Save the Dunes, and the Ohio Environmental Council

Learn more about TRCP’s commitment to healthy habitat and clean water here.

by: Ryan Lockwood

posted in: Recreational Fisheries

January 31, 2024

Conservation Community Responds After Menhaden Study Bill Again Stalled by Virginia Lawmakers

For second year in a row, legislators delay passage of bill that would support three-year study to determine the ecology, fishery impacts, and economic importance of the Atlantic menhaden population in Virginia waters

(RICHMOND, Va.) — Delegates in the Virginia General Assembly’s Studies Subcommittee voted on Monday to push House Bill 19 into the 2025 legislative session, effectively stalling its passage for the second year in a row. HB 19 would have directed the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, in collaboration with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, to study the ecology, fishery impacts, and economic importance of the Atlantic menhaden population in Commonwealth waters. The results would allow the VMRC to make better-informed decisions about menhaden management in Chesapeake Bay.

Conservation and recreational sportfishing organizations have expressed disappointment with this latest legislative setback, in the face of increasing anecdotal and scientific evidence of localized depletion of menhaden in the Chesapeake.

“It is disappointing that this important bill to support better science and data collection is stalling again, despite the public support from Chesapeake-area anglers, scientists and conservationists,” said Chris Macaluso, director of the Center for Marine Fisheries for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “To manage the Chesapeake Bay effectively, there is a need for robust data about the specific, concentrated impacts of this industrial-scale harvest of a critical forage species to Bay fisheries and habitats. It is also critical to better fisheries management to understand the impacts of the thousands of red drum, striped bass, and other sport and game fish that are trapped annually in commercial nets.”

“The fact that the industry was involved in designing the study, and then turned and lobbied against the bill, is yet another breach of public trust,” said Steve Atkinson, president of the Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association.

Menhaden have accounted for more than 60 percent of all commercial fish landings in Chesapeake Bay for over five decades. Yet sampling in the Bay has shown that the relative abundance of menhaden has decreased almost 16-fold in the last 40 years. While Atlantic menhaden are not classified as overfished coastwide – meaning up and down the Atlantic coast – localized depletion in the Bay from decades of industrial fishing could be a critical factor in the decreased availability of food for predators like striped bass, bluefish, redfish, cobia, and other sportfish, as well as ospreys, whales, and commercially important species.

“For decades we’ve known that menhaden are extremely important to the Chesapeake and Atlantic ecosystems, as well as invaluable forage for gamefish such as red drum and stripers,” said Capt. Chris Dollar, a Virginia fishing business owner and Chesapeake conservation advisor for the Coastal Conservation Association. “What’s been missing, however, is better science to get a handle on the health and abundance of the Bay’s local menhaden population. It’s no surprise that Omega Protein flip-flopped in their support of the study bill, but it’s extremely disheartening that a handful of elected officials agreed with them to again derail this vital research.”

“The MRAA is disappointed to see that this important legislation is once again delayed and that menhaden reduction fishing will continue in Virginia waters, without a comprehensive understanding of the potential economic and environmental impact,” said Chad Tokowicz, government relations manager for the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas. “Studies like this are integral to gaining a more in-depth understanding of the Virginia menhaden fishery and will provide much-needed data to inform important fisheries management decisions.”

The study was specifically proposed to examine:

The Chesapeake Bay menhaden population (seasonal abundance, movement rates, and predator consumption rates)
Commercial fishery impacts on the menhaden population (fishery effort patterns, localized depletion analyses, and recreational fishery effects)
Economic impacts of menhaden policy (socioeconomic tradeoffs in management, ecosystem services of the menhaden resource, and modelling conservation vs. removals)

In the 2023 legislative session, an introduced precursor bill, Senate Bill 1388, would have directed VIMS to begin the three-year study this year. However, it was heavily amended and instead directed VIMS to merely develop a study methodology with input from VMRC and fishery stakeholders. That methodology was published last October by VIMS, and advocates were hopeful it would finally lead to a bill authorizing and supporting the study.

Atlantic menhaden, which studies indicate comprise as much as 30 percent of the diet of striped bass, are removed from Virginia waters by industrial fishing operations to be “reduced” to fish meal, oil, and products used in livestock and fish farming feeds. Omega Protein, owned by Canadian-based Cooke Seafood, removes more than 100 million pounds of menhaden from the Chesapeake Bay each year, in addition to nearly 240 million pounds of menhaden from Virginia state waters outside the Bay.

Stock assessments indicate the Atlantic striped bass stock has been declining for years, with particularly concerning low populations in the Chesapeake Bay estuary, the primary spawning ground for 70 to 90 percent of the striped bass stock. Population declines and the resulting reduction in catches have led to a 50 percent loss in the economic value that striped bass fishing generates in Virginia. In neighboring Maryland, fisheries managers reported the 2023 year class of striped bass was one of the lowest ever recorded.

Virginia continues to be the only East Coast state allowing reduction fishing of menhaden in its waters.

Click here to take action to demand that Virginia fund menhaden research.

Photo Credit: Chesapeake Bay Program

by: Chris Macaluso

posted in: Recreational Fisheries

January 22, 2024

Removing Retired Gulf Rigs Ruins Offshore Fishing

Decades-old offshore oil and gas structures, no longer involved in extraction, still provide critical marine habitat – and bipartisan legislation is aimed at protecting these rigs-turned-reefs

Here in Louisiana, I look forward anxiously to the first weekend in June every year.

Some good buddies and I always get together to fish our high school’s alumni tournament in Port Fourchon. Weather permitting (and sometimes even when we should have stayed in bed), we snapper fish on the oil and gas rigs and artificial reefs that have come to life on those structures, almost always with incredible success.

Our favorite destination was once the South Timbalier 50’s blocks, specifically the red-and-yellow-painted double platform that towered over the other dozen or so structures in the area. It was about 12 miles southwest of Belle Pass, meaning it was generally accessible in a 24-foot bay boat. It stood in 60 feet of water and always held nice-sized red and mangrove snapper. Six years ago, we aimed the boat right for it on the first day of the tournament, only to find it wasn’t there anymore.

From a marine fisheries standpoint, Gulf rigs provide an extensive network of the world’s most productive artificial reefs.

This has become a common story along the Gulf Coast. In the early 1980s, there were some 4,000 oil, gas, and sulfur production platforms in the northern and western Gulf. Obviously, the metal structures fixed to the sea floor in depths of 3 to 1,300 feet of water were built to extract and transport petroleum and minerals. But from a marine fisheries standpoint, they also quickly became an extensive network of the world’s most productive artificial reefs.

In the last 25 years, that number of rigs has been cut by 60 percent. In the next decade, as many as 700 more of the 1,550 or so remaining rigs could be removed as well. And, when they are removed, federal law currently requires that the sea floor be stripped bare, with all signs of the rig and associated reef removed.

Fortunately, two Gulf Coast congressmen have recently stepped in to try and save some of the ecologically and economically valuable reefs that have colonized the rigs. Rep. Garret Graves, a Louisiana Republican, and Rep. Marc Veasy, a Texas Democrat, introduced H.R. 6814 late last year. Named the “Marine Fisheries Habitat Protection Act,” it would change federal law and policy to require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to examine the Gulf’s artificial reefs and associated fisheries production while encouraging more participation in the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s Rigs-to-Reefs Program.

Critics of artificial reefs, and of the oil and gas industry, have long claimed these structures are simply fish aggregators, meaning they make fish easier targets for anglers and commercial harvesters, likening them to piles of corn or salt licks that attract deer. However, research conducted over the last 30-plus years by Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Louisiana State University and a host of other academic institutions have thoroughly debunked those claims. For some fish, especially snappers and groupers, rig reefs are just as productive or more productive than natural hard bottoms and corals. And these vertically oriented structures can host as many as 90 species of fish that utilize different water depths, while steering fishing pressure away from sensitive natural reefs.

Within weeks of being in the water, rig legs begin to be colonized by benthic creatures like corals, sponges, barnacles, algae, and other organisms. Some fish species also arrive almost immediately, with jacks, dolphin (mahi mahi), sharks, mackerels, barracuda, tunas, and others quickly orienting higher in the water column. Reef fish and crustaceans come soon after with snappers, groupers, spadefish, triggerfish, and numerous other structure-loving fish colonizing the maze of vertical pilings and cross members.

While Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf states seek out decommissioned naval ships, old tugboats, subway cars, and many other hard structures to sink to expand fish and coral habitat and increase fisheries production and opportunity, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama had artificial reefs built for them free of charge by the oil and gas industry. All four states have worked with the owners of those platforms on programs to keep as many decommissioned structures as possible in the water, but the rate of removal has far outpaced the effort to navigate the web of bureaucracies, laws, and policies allowing them to stay in place.

For Gulf anglers, the removal of their favorite fishing spots has been a punch to the gut. Many are rightly frustrated, and even angry, at the lost fisheries production and opportunity. Reps. Graves and Veasy, both avid anglers, are deserving of praise for trying to do their part to help their constituents and, more importantly, the fish themselves. With your support, hopefully all of Congress sees it that way and gets behind this bill.

Tell Congress to support legislation to protect artificial reefs and offshore fishing.