Louisiana Decision Undermines Hard-Won Conservation Measure on Menhaden Fishing

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by: Ryan Lockwood

posted in: Press Releases

November 6, 2025

The new Notice of Intent could once again permit industrial menhaden harvest in waters as shallow as five feet – rolling back a successful 2024 conservation measure developed through collaboration between anglers, industry, and state leaders

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC) voted 4-3 today to move forward with a Notice of Intent (NOI) that could allow industrial pogy boats to again fish within a quarter-mile of most Louisiana beaches – eliminating a broader half-mile buffer zone that the industry agreed to in 2024 after negotiations with recreational angling and conservation groups, LWFC, and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Despite overwhelming public opposition – including testimony, written comments, and letters from nearly 200 Louisiana-based and national conservation organizations and fishing tackle companies urging the LWFC to keep industrial fishing for pogies – also called menhaden – at least ½-mile off Louisiana’s coastline, the LWFC sided with the two foreign-controlled menhaden companies operating in the state.

“Today’s decision is extremely disappointing for anglers, conservationists, and those who care about Louisiana’s coastal ecosystems and habitat,” said Chris Macaluso, director of fisheries for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “In 2024, anglers, conservationists, and the menhaden industry reached a compromise to establish modest protections for Louisiana’s shallow coastal waters by setting a half-mile buffer off most Louisiana beaches. What happened today is nothing less than the industry and their political allies backing out of that deal.”

Commission Chairman Kevin Sagrera of Abbeville, La. – where Canadian-owned Omega Protein owns one of its two Gulf-based processing plants – instructed Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries staff in October to draw maps that reduced the ½-mile buffers to ¼-mile across most of the coast at the behest of the industry. The other industrial menhaden company operating in the Gulf is South African-controlled Daybrook Fisheries, which runs a processing plant in Empire, La.

The ½-mile buffers were enacted prior to the 2024 menhaden fishing season after two massive fish kill events were caused by the industry’s boats, as well as net tears in 2022 and 2023, that resulted in wasting millions of dead pogies, redfish, croakers, and other fish that washed up on Louisiana beaches. Menhaden reduction vessels draft around 10 feet, but will now again be permitted to fish in water as shallow as 5 feet if the NOI is ultimately approved in spring 2026.

“What happened today not only undermines public trust in our state’s ability to conservatively manage its fisheries but will ultimately result in harm to fragile coastal habitats and fish like redfish and speckled trout, whose populations have already declined over the past decade.”

–

Chris Macaluso, director of fisheries for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership analyzed menhaden industry-related fish kill and spill information from 2024 and determined that the estimated number of fish spilled was reduced by 74 percent after the ½-mile buffer was instituted. Menhaden harvest data from NOAA Fisheries database also revealed that – despite industry claims that the buffers were resulting in a loss of jobs, profits, and fewer fish harvested – 2024 harvest levels were similar to levels during the 2021 and 2014 fishing seasons and that the dockside value of the Gulf menhaden harvest increased by a full $60 million from 2021-2024.

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 spot, 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 LWFC was set to approve a 1-mile buffer coastwide in early 2024 after extensive public outcry about the millions of dead fish spoiling on Louisiana’s beaches in the previous two seasons. That decision was delayed by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry’s administration, which eventually insisted both recreational fishing and conservation advocates, along with the menhaden industry, accept a ½-mile buffer as a compromise.

The vote to reduce the current ½-mile buffer will include a 60-day public comment period to begin on December 19 and conclude on January 23, 2026. Should the LWFC give final approval to the NOI after the comment period, the Louisiana Legislature has the option to conduct an oversight hearing of the decision and could remand the decision back to LWFC for changes, if deemed necessary.

More information about the broad importance of menhaden is available on TRCP’s Forage Fish Recovery Page

One Response to “Louisiana Decision Undermines Hard-Won Conservation Measure on Menhaden Fishing ”

Garth Walker November 7, 2025

This proves what we all already know that live down here. Louisiana politicians are crooked to the core and can be bought very easily. Mississippi and Louisiana rank number one and number two and corruption for many years. The dirtiest industry in the country of the Menhaden Reduction Fishery! It is a crime against nature, crime against humanity. They must be stopped.!

November 7, 2025 at 4:32 pm

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by: Ryan Lockwood

posted in: Press Releases

October 28, 2025

Marine Fisheries Board Declines to Make Science-Based Reduction to Atlantic Menhaden Catch Limit

Revised models indicate the need to cut commercial quota by more than half to rebuild striped bass populations, but ASMFC Menhaden Management Board vote today reduces catch limit by a mere 20 percent

Despite a 2025 stock assessment indicating that Atlantic menhaden biomass is one-third lower than previously estimated – and an immediate need to cut the coastwide menhaden quota by more than 50 percent to support striped bass rebuilding – the Menhaden Management Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted today to reduce 2026 commercial catch by only 20 percent. The decision, which will likely prevent striped bass and other predators largely reliant on menhaden like bluefish, weakfish, spiny dogfish, and ospreys from having sufficient forage, was a disappointment for conservation and recreational angling organizations.

“Rebuilding the Atlantic striped bass population has always involved more than just regulating striped bass harvest. It’s also about ensuring that enough of their key food source, Atlantic menhaden, remains available in the water,” said Chris Macaluso, director of the Center for Fisheries for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “The Menhaden Management Board’s decision to adopt only a 20 percent reduction in menhaden harvest, despite the science and input from ASMFC’s own scientists who highlighted the risks, makes it more challenging to achieve striped bass recovery by 2029. This step falls short of fully advancing more than a decade of progress toward ecosystem-based management and undermines public trust in the process.”

Three years ago, the Menhaden Management Board voted to increase the Atlantic menhaden catch limits for the 2023-2025 fishing seasons when the best available science indicated it was warranted.

The Board’s decision, made at the agency’s annual meeting in Delaware, ignores its own management framework based on “ecological reference points” (ERPs) — clear, science-based limits that tie menhaden harvest directly to predator health – and new estimates that show there are 37 percent fewer menhaden off the Atlantic coast than previously estimated. The Board also declined to vote for additional coastwide menhaden quota reductions beyond the 2026 fishing season, dodging additional quota cuts for 2027 and 2028 that could have collectively reached an ERP-based reduction that the recreational angling community called for after three years. The Board instead favored revisiting the issue in 2026 to determine if additional reductions are needed.

Notably, three years ago the Menhaden Management Board voted to increase the Atlantic menhaden total allowable catch for the 2023-2025 fishing seasons when the best available science indicated it was warranted. However, now that the best science indicates a reduction in catch is needed, the board has declined to reduce the catch to align with the ecosystem-based management model.

In early October, the ASMFC released its 2025 Atlantic menhaden stock assessment update, which indicated that the coastwide menhaden biomass is lower than previously estimated and suggested that slashing the coastwide catch limit by more than half would be necessary to ensure sufficient forage for rebuilding populations of striped bass. The Board’s decision today is not expected to achieve the standard 50/50 probability of not exceeding the ERP fishing mortality target – the precautionary approach that would dictate risk-tolerant, science-based management – and instead results in a 100 percent chance of exceeding the target in 2026.

“Today, the Menhaden Management Board chose to abandon ecosystem-based management and will be leaving less menhaden in the water to fuel our coastal ecosystems and sportfishing economies,” said Ted Venker, conservation director for the Coastal Conservation Association.

Unlike traditional single-species models that only measure the health of one species like menhaden, ERPs explicitly weigh the tradeoffs between menhaden harvest and effects on predator populations — in this case, most notably striped bass, also known as rockfish.

TRCP and partners successfully advocated for ERPs to be considered in menhaden management starting in 2020. The expectation of all involved in the process was that this methodology would drive future management decisions, even though following ERPs is not mandated for the ASMFC.

“We will continue working with the ASMFC, anglers, and conservationists to ensure that menhaden harvest reductions go beyond 20 percent and align with the ecosystem’s needs and the board’s stated commitments,” Macaluso said.

The Menhaden Management Board also voted today to initiate an addendum to specifically address Chesapeake Bay Management, which will develop options for quota periods which distribute menhaden removals more evenly throughout the fishing season, as well as options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishing Cap ranging from status quo to a 50 percent decrease. This process could yield significant benefits to the Bay ecosystem, which has faced multiple concerns in recent years, including osprey breeding failures due to chick starvation in many parts of the Bay.

More information about the broad importance of Atlantic menhaden is available on TRCP’s Forage Fish Recovery Page.

Banner image courtesy David Mangum

by: Michael O'Casey

posted in: Press Releases

October 21, 2025

TRCP Applauds Senate Committee Markup of the Fix Our Forests Act

Bipartisan legislation seeks to accelerate forest management and restoration, improve wildfire resilience, and expand collaboration and innovation

Today, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership applauds Senate advancement of the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act. Led by Senator John Curtis (R-Utah), Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Senator Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), and Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the Fix Our Forests Act passed out of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee with bipartisan support. The bill was first introduced by Representative Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Representative Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and passed the U.S. House of Representatives with a strong bipartisan vote earlier this year.

“The declining health of our National Forests and the fish and wildlife habitat that they provide is a concern for America’s hunters and anglers,” said Joel Webster, Chief Conservation Officer for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “TRCP applauds the leadership of Senate Agriculture Committee members for advancing the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act. We urge Congress to pass these important forest management provisions and to accompany them with adequate resources and capacity to carry out on-the-ground work.”

The bill provides a comprehensive approach to address forest health and the wildfire challenges on our nation’s forests by accelerating important planning and implementation of restoration projects, expanding collaborative tools, and improving coordination between local, state, federal, and Tribal partners. The legislation bolsters the use of prescribed fire, promotes replanting after wildfires or other extreme events, and supports ecosystem and habitat restoration across Western forests, as well as the priceless white oak forests of the Eastern U.S.

Importantly, the Fix Our Forests Act would help communities become more resilient to wildfire by establishing a Community Risk Reduction Program and makes improvements to existing grant programs while fostering cutting-edge research. The bill creates a Fire Intelligence Center to improve interagency coordination and adoption of new technologies. For the first time, this bill recognizes that projects to restore and improve floodplains and wetlands can demonstrably reduce wildfire risk to downstream communities, including the long-term impacts wildfires can have on valuable drinking water supplies for rural and urban populations.

“While the ongoing government shutdown highlights the challenges facing our public land agencies, today’s bipartisan action by the Senate Agriculture Committee shows that progress on forest health and wildfire resilience can and should continue,” added Webster. “The Fix Our Forests Act lays the groundwork to advance the pace and scale of forest management, and the TRCP will continue to work with Congress to secure the resources agencies need to put these tools to work.”

Learn more about TRCP’s commitment to public lands HERE.

by: Ryan Lockwood

posted in: Press Releases

October 10, 2025

TRCP Announces New Conservation Staff Member in Pennsylvania

PA field representative will focus on key state conservation issues as well as national wildlife health concerns, including Chronic Wasting Disease

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership announced today the addition of Jim Kauffman, who will serve as the organization’s Pennsylvania field representative and wildlife health coordinator. This position will ensure that hunting, fishing, and trapping opportunities are maintained for all Pennsylvanians through sound conservation policy and scientific management strategies while helping TRCP achieve its mission to guarantee all Americans quality places to hunt and fish.

In this role, Kauffman will serve as the organization’s state representative for conservation, access, and habitat policies affecting hunters and anglers, as well as work to address water quality concerns that affect Pennsylvania’s trout streams, wetlands, and downstream waters including the Chesapeake Bay. He also will coordinate the organization’s strategy to combat Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) nationwide and support partners in educating hunters about other relevant wildlife diseases and pest threats.

“Despite growing up in suburban Pennsylvania, I was fortunate to have access to two cabins on public land that allowed my family to maintain our rural roots and passion for the outdoors,” said Jim Kauffman, Pennsylvania field representative and wildlife health coordinator for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “Those places have inspired in me a life dedicated to wildlife conservation, fair access to public lands, and the ethical pursuit of game.”

A lifelong Pennsylvanian, Kauffman holds a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Penn State and a master’s in biology from East Stroudsburg University. His career initially focused on the research and management of wildlife species including river otters, bobcats, fishers, and ring-necked pheasants. He has also worked extensively with private landowners to deliver habitat-incentive programs, provide forestry guidance, and promote public hunting access.

Learn more here about how TRCP works in Pennsylvania.

by: Noah Davis

posted in: Press Releases

September 18, 2025

Hunters and Anglers Cheer House Introduction of MAP Roads Act

Bill would direct Department of Transportation to establish grant program to fund the digitization of county public roads

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership joins hunters, anglers, and all who drive rural, county roads in cheering House introduction of the Modernizing Access to Public Roads Act.

The bipartisan legislation is sponsored by Representative Blake Moore (R-Utah) and cosponsored by Representative Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Representative Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.), and Representative Susie Lee (D-Nev.).

“The lack of publicly accessible and accurate county road map information is a key barrier for hunters and anglers trying to access public lands,” said Joel Pedersen, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “The bipartisan MAP Roads Act will provide funding to address these mapping shortfalls and improve public access, resulting in reduced confusion for hunters and anglers trying to navigate rural road systems across America.”

The MAP Roads Act builds on the success of the MAPLand Act, MAPWaters Act, and MAPOceans Act by establishing a $20 million, 5-year pilot grant program through the U.S. Department of Transportation to:

⦁ Fund county road digitization by converting paper or outdated formats into standardized geospatial datasets.

⦁ Create publicly accessible statewide road data repositories that distinguish public and private roads, are compatible with third-party mapping platforms, and are updated annually.

⦁ Provide funds to support local capacity toward county subgrants, personnel training, or hiring contractors for data conversion.

The clarity and accessibility to this information for both the public and local municipalities would improve rural commerce, public safety, navigation, and access to public lands so more Americans can confidently access and enjoy their public roadways and the adventures beyond. The MAP Roads Act would not create any new road authority, or alter any legal status, ownership, or jurisdiction of roads.

“We appreciate Congressman Moore’s introduction of the Modernizing Access to Public Roads Act,” said Judy Camuso, commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and president of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. “This legislation affords the opportunity for states and local governments to utilize technology to improve road access data that will ultimately help improve public access for our hunters, anglers, and outdoor recreationalists.”

“Too often, outdoor recreationists are left guessing whether a rural road is public or private because county road records have not kept pace with modern navigation technology,” said Laura Orvidas, CEO of onX. “This uncertainty can restrict recreational access to public places and can cause conflicts between private landowners and the public. The MAP Roads Act will accelerate the modernization of these records, giving people the confidence to know where they can travel to reach public land. Not only will it expand recreational access, but it will also streamline county operations, all while preserving local authority over road networks.”

“In an era where mobile apps and GPS are essential for navigating vast public lands to reach remote hunting grounds, accurate and up-to-date county road data is critical,” said Kurt Dyroff, Co-CEO of the National Wild Turkey Federation. “The MAP Roads Act will reduce inadvertent trespass risks, enhance safety during hunts, and open safer, more reliable access to our nation’s public hunting opportunities.”

“Accurate and readily available maps are essential for ensuring access to our nation’s public lands and waters,” said Kaden McArthur, Congressional Affairs Director for Trout Unlimited. “We thank Representative Blake Moore for his leadership on the MAP Roads Act which would make it easier to find reliable routes to rivers and streams by bringing outdated road maps into the digital age. This legislation would allow anglers to spend more time on the water and less time worrying about how to get there.”

Learn more about TRCP’s commitment to public access HERE.

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