LDWF meeting to talk about Big Lake Oysters
 

Items 9 and 10 could effect Big Lake.
You can listen to the meeting on your computer..... see last line.


Agenda for August LWF Commission Meeting - Baton Rouge
Printable Version
Release Date: 08/04/2014

The next regular Commission Meeting will be held at 9:30 AM on Thursday, August 7, 2014, at the Wildlife and Fisheries Headquarters Building located at 2000 Quail Drive, Baton Rouge, LA

The following items will be discussed:


1. Roll Call

2. Approval of Minutes of July 3, 2014

3. Commission Special Announcements/Personal Privilege

4. Recognize Chevron for social responsibility support of Whooping Crane reintroduction

5. Recognize Recreation Trails Program Achievement Award

6. To Hear Enforcement Reports July 2014

7. To Hear Notice of the Secretary Reopening Certain Waters previously closed to Commercial Fishing and Certain Recreational Fishing as a result of the DWH Oil Spill (No Commission action required)

8. To Consider a Declaration of Emergency for setting the Opening Dates of the 2014 Fall Inshore Shrimp Season

9. To Hear a Report on Calcasieu Lake Oyster Resource

10. To Consider a Declaration of Emergency for the 2014-2015 Oyster Season Dates and Harvest Limits for the Public Oyster Areas of Louisiana

11. To Hear an Inland Fisheries Update Report

12. To Consider an Amendment and Hear Final Public Comments on the Port Eads Possession Limit NOI

13. To Consider A Declaration of Emergency for the 2014-2015 Waterfowl Season Dates

14. To Consider a Notice of Intent to Amend the Rules and Regulations Governing the Possession of Potentially Dangerous Quadrupeds - Big Exotic Cats to conform the rules to Act 697 of the 2014 Regular Session of the Legislature

15. Set December 2014 Meeting Date

16. Receive Public Comments

17. Adjournment

To listen to the meeting live via webinar, register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/reg...43668592657153

maybe they can keep having the meetings that have anything to do with our area 3 hours away, that way nobody voices any concerns when asked because nobody is there. sounds like a plan.

Maybe they did hear all the complaints and will review this. Maybe we give them benefit of the doubt.

If you cannot attend in person, you may attend via webinar and then send an email to commission members afterwards with your concerns.

nice!! thanks

Yes because surely it is a conspiracy that the LDWF is holding their meetings in the meeting room that was built for commission meetings in the LDWF building.

Trout limit change 25 to 15 zero data or science
Triple tail limit in force from none to 5 over 18inches ; zero science

Oyster dredging stocks have depleted to all time low since oyster dredging
Full science and biology assessment

Ignore and let's see what happens

burn

I think the best interests of the ecosystem will be served well if we focus on the task at hand rather than the usual swipes, insults, and rhetoric. Please attend via webinar if you cannot attend in person. In your email follow-up on the meeting, please be restrained and focus on several action items:

1. Close Calcasieu Lake to Oystering in the 2014-2015 oyster season. The data shows the oyster reefs are in abysmal shape, and oysters provide essential ecosystem services that benefit other fisheries and the overall health of the estuary.

2. Double the recreational and commercial limits on black drum (or eliminate the limits completely). Black drum exert tremendous predation pressure on oysters making it difficult for the over harvested reefs to recover. Black drum are in no danger of extirpation, and reducing numbers state wide will assist with oyster stock recovery.

The effects of the erosion on the south end of the lake do the most damage as far as oysters are concerned. Black Drum prey on oyster but drill snails and disease are probably the main culprit. correct? Dredging needs to go away, thats for sure. But they haven't oystered the lake in years and they are still not coming back. High salinity levels and high temps are ideal conditions for the snail and disease. getting the salinity control measures on the south end of the lake would be most benifical.

You may be right, but the Commission is more likely to be effective making rules that allow things to come back rather than finding millions of dollars to address the erosion and salinity issues.

I think in the near term it will be more effective to ask the commission to do things that are within their power to do (easily). Asking the LWC for expensive projects is not as promising. If Calcasieu Lake ever gets effective erosion or salinity control, I doubt it will come from LWC or LDWF.

It's also not clear if the drill snails or the black drum are the bigger issue. Black drum are a big problem for oysters statewide. Also, the E side may not have been oystered since 2010-2011, but it was hit very hard that year, and multiple factors likely contribute to the lack of comeback. The assessments looked better on the E side in 2012 and 2013 (compared with 2011), but I have not seen 2014 yet. The W side has been oystered every year.

Please just stop the dredging! Most ridiculous thing I've seen, rapping natural habitat like they have.

Gill netting was shut down for depleting a natural resource.. The same reasoning should be applied in this instance.

Guarantee this committee has a combined iq of 50, bunch of idiots period and they don't care nor know how to open or respond to emails.

I can certainly understand your frustration.

But a bit of gently and kindly applied pressure, focused at a time when the policy makers are considering a specific question has a better chance of success than cynical insults that they won't even know about.

This meeting is a rare opportunity for real and tangible progress.

ship channel dredging?

I agree
 

Yea I agree, although it was the oyster fishermans cynical insults and threats against Dan Morrish that overturned the cancellation of dredging.

I appreciate all your statistical research and analysis on these controversial issues Math G.

Really is frustrating seeing the effects of these now flattened reefs being depleted.

Interests with money and a powerful lobby can succeed in spite of poor behavior.

Since CCA has remained silent, policy makers have little to fear if bad policy continues to negatively impact the fishery. We need to use gentle persuasion, data, and polite appeals to the best interests of the future fishery.

I bet the oyster fisherman would gladly support raising the black drum limits.

no he is talking about oyster dredging with rakes plowing up the bottom and striping areas completely bare of oysters in their wake.

you should see how they work, they circle endlessly until they cant find a single oyster left before they move to another spot.

oyster dredging IS as bad and harmful as the gill nets were and it should be outlawed forcing oyster fishermen to go back to less destructive methods like tonging or harvesting by hand

Oyster reefs in west cove will take years and years to ever get back to normal if they close it off for good


It might be beyond repair

Here is a picture of 2 boats on the south bank of Big Lake. There was at least 2 dozen boats working the Lake on 4-21-2010.
.

I have touched base with some folks at the LDWF office in Baton Rouge. It seems as if the Commission is likely to decide tomorrow what the oyster harvest regulations on Big Lake will be next year. If the decision is to be made tomorrow, it may be too late to submit comments by email after the meeting.

Therefore, I would recommend contacting Commission members today with your input regarding oystering. Some points to consider:

1. Damage to oyster reefs by dredging not only harms the future of the oyster fishery, but also harms the entire ecosystem and fishery.

2. Healthy oyster reefs provide essential ecosystem services including filtering of anthropogenic inputs, benthopelagic coupling, biological resistance to algae blooms and subsequent hypoxia, nursery areas for finfish, areas of concentrated benthos, and high quality habitat.

3. Over harvesting of oysters was a key factor in the decline of many fisheries along the southeastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, including the Chesapeake Bay and Galveston Bay.

4. Scientists estimate that each 10 square meters of high quality oyster reefs produce an additional 2.6 kg/year of finfish and large crustaceans.

Some references:

Beck, M. W., R. D. Brumbaugh, L. Airoldi, A. Carranza, L. D. Coen, C. Crawford, O. Defeo, G. J. Edgar, B. Hancock, M. C. Kay, H. S. Lenihan, M. W. Luckenbach, C. L. Toropova, G. F. Zhang, and X. M. Guo. 2011. Oyster Reefs at Risk and Recommendations for Conservation, Restoration, and Management. Bioscience 61:107-116.

Beck, M. W., K. L. Heck, K. W. Able, D. L. Childers, D. B. Eggleston, B. M. Gillanders, B. Halpern, C. G. Hays, K. Hoshino, T. J. Minello, R. J. Orth, P. F. Sheridan, and M. R. Weinstein. 2001. The Identification, Conservation, and Management of Estuarine and Marine Nurseries for Fish and Invertebrates. Bioscience 51:633-641.

Coen, L. D. and R. E. Grizzle. 2007. The importance of habitat created by molluscan shellfish to managed species along the Atlantic coast of the United States. ASMFC Management Series #8.

Grabowski, J. H., and C. H. Peterson. 2007. Restoring Oyster Reefs To Recover Ecosystem Services, p. 281 – 298. In: Ecosystems Engineers: Plants to Protists. K. Cuddington, J. E. Byers, W. G. Wilson, and A. Hastings (eds.). Academic Press, Burlington, MA.

Henson, M. 1993. The History of Galveston Bay Resource Utilization. Webster, Texas.

Newell, R. I. E. 2004. Ecosystem Influences of Natural and Cultivated Populations of Suspension-Feeding Bivalve Molluscs: A Review. Journal of Shellfish Research 23:51-61.

Peterson, C. H., I. H. Grabowski, and S. P. Powers. (2003). Estimated Enhancement of Fish Production Resulting from Restoring Oyster Reef Habitat: Quantitative Valuation. Marine Ecology Progress Series 264:249-264.

Plunket, J. T. 2003. A Comparison Of Finfish Assemblages on Subtidal Oyster Shell (Clutched Oyster Lease) and Mud Bottom in Barataria Bay, Louisiana. LSU Thesis. HYPERLINK "http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0626103-163535/unrestricted/Plunket_thesis.pdf"

Plunket, J. and M. K. La Peyre. 2005. Oyster Beds as Fish and Macroinvertebrate Habitat in Barataria Bay, Louisiana. Bulletin of Marine Science 77:155-164.

Rothschild, B. J., J. S. Ault, P. Goulletquer, and M. Heral. 1994. Decline of the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Population - A Century of Habitat Destruction and Overfishing. Marine Ecology-Progress Series 111:29-39.