Thoughts on CCA meeting tonight on state of Calcasieu fishery

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by T-TOP

The oyster guy was informative, the problem is it takes legislature to change this. its been talked about on here before, the rep from jennnings tried to change this. He was met by heavy oposition (oyster fisherman) no one was there to support him on the changes and he changed the bill. For any change to occur it seems like it would take a lot of noise from people like the people that were there last night. I asked him for the people in the room that want change on the oyster harvest regs, who should we contact. He said our legislator is the one to contact.

Legislative pressure is a great idea, but I expect it to take a while to work.

I've begun to think outside the box a bit. Do you know that there are a host of new regulations that the oyster harvesters need to comply with and also that DHH has the authority to close oystering grounds for health reasons? One idea that has potential is to begin photographing and documenting the oystering activities, both to improve our documentation of the ecological damage done by the dredging and also to gather information and make reports regarding non-compliance with the regulations. If state officials give oyster harvesters a pass on non-compliance, I don't think it would be too hard to get the FDA involved to shut down non-compliant operators, and some other states are very eager to cite health concerns as reasons to stop buying Louisiana Oysters. There is real potential to give the local oyster industry a black eye on failure to comply with new health regulations. Give some of the new regs a careful read, and I bet some action items come to mind:

http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/page/629/n/210

http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov/assets/...n_05102014.pdf

http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov/assets/...hure_14x17.pdf

http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/news/37809

http://oysterlease.wlf.la.gov/oyster...tification.pdf

[T-TOP]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

Legislative pressure is a great idea, but I expect it to take a while to work.

I've begun to think outside the box a bit. Do you know that there are a host of new regulations that the oyster harvesters need to comply with and also that DHH has the authority to close oystering grounds for health reasons? One idea that has potential is to begin photographing and documenting the oystering activities, both to improve our documentation of the ecological damage done by the dredging and also to gather information and make reports regarding non-compliance with the regulations. If state officials give oyster harvesters a pass on non-compliance, I don't think it would be too hard to get the FDA involved to shut down non-compliant operators, and some other states are very eager to cite health concerns as reasons to stop buying Louisiana Oysters. There is real potential to give the local oyster industry a black eye on failure to comply with new health regulations. Give some of the new regs a careful read, and I bet some action items come to mind:

http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/page/629/n/210

http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov/assets/...n_05102014.pdf

http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov/assets/...hure_14x17.pdf

http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/news/37809

http://oysterlease.wlf.la.gov/oyster...tification.pdf

How many signatures on a petition to stop the dredging do you think it would take to get some attention? Along with the graph that we saw last night.... that clearly shows a decline.

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by T-TOP

How many signatures on a petition to stop the dredging do you think it would take to get some attention? Along with the graph that we saw last night.... that clearly shows a decline.

I wish I could say. There are some aspects of the Louisiana policy making process that are a mystery to me. Another SC member posted the list of committee members along with the view that the normal political pressures are unlikely to change anything. I noticed that Randy Pausina is on that committee and he has made an impression on me as a man who is concerned with sound science and science based policy.

It might take some time to get change, but ongoing pressure and dialog are a good thing toward that end. Dredging on the E side has been closed for a few years now, it is West Cove that has been getting raped, and I am optimistic that the E side may be coming back. My hope is to get the policy changed before the E side is re-opened. In addition to the committee and the legislature having the authority to close the E side, DHH and the LDWF Secretary also have the authority.