Closure of the Grand Bayou Boat Bay
 

News Release [SIZE=3]
[/SIZE]Department of the Interior / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service[SIZE=3]
[/SIZE]Southwest Louisiana National Wildlife Refuge Complex[SIZE=3]
Cameron Prairie NWR[/SIZE][SIZE=3]
1428 Highway 27[/SIZE][SIZE=3]
Bell City, LA 70630[/SIZE][SIZE=3]
[/SIZE][SIZE=3]
For Immediate Release [/SIZE][SIZE=3]
January 31, 2012 [/SIZE][SIZE=3]

Contact: Chuck Perrodin
Public Information Director
Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
Desk: [/SIZE][SIZE=3](225) 342-7615[/SIZE][SIZE=3]
Cell: [/SIZE][SIZE=3](225) 768-8882[/SIZE][SIZE=3]

The boat bay at Grand Bayou allowing public access to the Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge will be closed until further notice beginning Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012. The closure is necessary to allow fresh water from recent rains to alleviate high salinities in the Cameron Creole Watershed caused by extended drought in 2011. This action is being taken in accordance with the Cameron-Creole Water Management Plan. Lowering salinity to the target levels in the Operations Permit will facilitate recovery of marsh vegetation and help reduce land loss in the watershed.

Effective January 1, 2012 the U S Fish and Wildlife Service relinquished daily operation of the water control structures on the east side of Calcasieu Lake to the Louisiana State Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Daily Operations and maintenance of the structures along the east side of Calcasieu Lake are now funded by the Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) as part of the Cameron Creole Maintenance (CS-04a) project. Gate operations are now performed by a contractor directed by the Louisiana State Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. [/SIZE]

Told ya this was coming.

Thank god!!!! East bank reefs may be fishable... I bet W has a hard on right now

Roger..hope the keep them closed to September so I can go castnet some skrimps

Just spit coke everywhere.

Bout time they shut em down.. they will be crying in a bit. Hang tight guys. This will get good.

:rolleyes:

Aight, I'm laughing. You about as tall as him and have the same body structure!

l m a o !

+1

Lol.


+1


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About time!!!!!

i lived and grew up in grand lake and complained about the wiers just like everybody else. I live in raceland now and fish grand isle alot. in the last 10 years the land loss is unreal and i could only wish we had the wiers over here to help stop the land loss. although people ***** and complain they can not fish behind the wiers. you still have land between your house and the gulf. be grateful.

The land loss in grand isle is a situation that is very sad. I grew up fishing that area.

Land loss is directly due to humans influencing the flow of water and sediment. If 'we' undo what we have done since the 1930s the problem will fix itself, but unfortunately there are too many stakeholders in it to get this accomplished. You could cut three holes in the MS River levee and stop the erosion. South of Venice this year there were hundreds of acres of land BUILT due to the freshwater and sediment influx from opening the freshwater diversions. It is very simple how to fix the problem. Louisiana will soon be getting a big chunk of money towards coastal land loss. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was a horrible environmental disaster we may never know the total effects of, but it shed light on the coast and we are finally going to get some funding and start to try and slow the erosion process and perhaps stop the net land loss in the foreseeable future. Check out the Louisiana Coastal Master Plan and there are places for people to comment. It is not a magic bullet, and there are going to be some upset stakeholders, but its a start.

Yep.....just look at the wax and atchafayla outlet. Building land like crazy,river water will always be the answer to the erosion problems.

to many big money people have their hands in the pot to open the spillways. like i said i live in raceland by the water plant which is 50 miles by car from belle pass late in the year you can taste the salt water in the drinking water because they do not want to open the donaldsonville spillway which would flood peoples wharfs and docks. that is a crappy excuse for people to have to drink and bathe in salt water. not to mention to help rebuild the marsh.

This is the truth.

Closing the weirs will make more parking space at Heberts.

What's the impact on BL fishing?

Won't hurt much. They will find another secret spot.

....

want hurt to much????? Do you realize if they cut off the marsh to lake this will not only destroy fishing in the lake but take a hug effect on Redfish also....

It will have some affect, but there is a lot of marsh on the other side of the lake too.
They have closed them off completely before. One year won't do a lot of damage.
They still leave the slat openings open to let water out. Just close the weir part,
to keep too much saltwater from coming in.
If the salinity gets too low, the marsh will clog up. They do not want that. That will
kill duck and alligator hunting back there.
I hunted behind the weirs for 25 years. They will lower the water to get grass growing
then keep it fresh till it takes off good. They will be monitoring salinity on a weekly
basis. I know one guy who got fired for pencil whipping the salinity reports cause he
was too lazy to go out and check. Big land owners like Miami also check to make sure
the guvment is doing their job.

From what I understand right now, the boat bay is not completly closed it is only closed enough so that boats cannot come in and out is that correct? Have any of you been by there? I plan to ride by there this weekend.

If it is in fact closed and they do have some water coming in and out how much will this hurt the shrimp migration that we have depended on for trout fishing?

I know this is great for the duck hunters back there for sure.

;)

Squeak will be pumped about this as well. I just sent him an email.

Too much water kills the duck hunting back there too.
We liked low water. Attracted more ducks.
But more vegetation attracts more ducks too.
If someone is on the ball, they will do the right thing.
High water will override any decisions on salinity and fish.
The drainage board in Cameron and Creole own the weirs.
Too much water and they will open them to get it out.
They won't let flooding take priority over fish and game.

You are right, every single trout, redfish, flounder, sheephead, black drum, shrimp, pogie, and ladyfish that was in Lake Calcasieu is going to DIE:shaking: They will not have ANYTHING to eat period:eek: There is always Sabine Lake or Texas if you wanna catch big trout:)

Sabine NWR is managed for waterfowl and alligators, that is what the weirs are there for to help manage the water that directly affects waterfowl and alligators. Big Lake will be fine, the weirs will be opened again

The fresh water needs to be held back. I know a bunch of people that hunt back there and the salinity this duck season was even higher than the Lake itself. This happen in several marshes this year due to the drought. Ducks became nonexistent with no food and much pressure. Good for the ducks is bad for the fish. I guess you can't keep everyone happy.

I have not hunted back there this season. But my friends who did, said it was a tough year. I hunted straight South of Lamberts Bayou. Just outside the refuge.
There are a lot of variables. But one year won't hurt the fishing.
They have done this before, and it didn't hurt.
There is a lot of marsh on the other side of the lake. And there are a lot of Reds still
behind the weirs.
The worst thing I have seen with the weirs closed is the killing of tons of Shrimp.
If they close them before the Shrimp leave, they will die once the water temps get
too cold. This has happened before. Thats why they leave the slat openings open.
They don't want to fight another law suit from the commercial fishing industry.

Is this an engineering term?

Inquiring Minds;)

Waltrip is a loving person.
Feel the love.

The Wiers are going to be opened from time to time to allow the shrimp to move in and out of the marsh. It amazes me how little some people know about salinity and its effect on the marsh. I happen to know for a fact that the salinities were over 25 ppt a few months back. With all the rain, it has probably dropped. But with the summer being projected as another dry one, Expect salinities to rise again. If that is allowed to continue, there won't be a marsh. So those Wiers have to be operated the way they were supposed to be originally, not the lack of operation that has existed for years. I understand people are going to be upset over the marsh access being cut off, but if they don't do that, you have no marsh.

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Saltwater Intrusion is going to be a huge factor from now on unfortunately:redface: Vermilion Parish was hit hard, another drought year and more parishes will suffer. Most of the interest 'we' hold involves recreation (fishing and hunting), many peoples' entire livelihoods are going to be affected by this (as well as the fishing and hunting guides). Sea levels ARE rising, (not attributing this to Al Gore's global warming crap) it is just from glaciers melting as we come out of an ice age as we have many many times in the past. When sea levels rise, places that are at or below sea level become.....