L.W.F.C. CONTINUES NEW RULES FOR HARVEST OF LARGE COASTAL SHARK

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From the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries...

L.W.F.C. CONTINUES NEW RULES FOR HARVEST OF LARGE COASTAL SHARK

Release Date: 10/02/2008

At its Oct. 2 meeting, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC) passed a declaration of emergency and notice of intent that maintain the regulations on harvest of large coastal shark that were enacted by Secretarial action, effective Sept. 11, 2008.

Vessels that have been issued or that possess a federal commercial directed or incidental limited access shark permit or federal shark research permit may only possess or sell, barter, trade, or exchange one limit per vessel per day, where that limit is identified for that permit by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

Persons possessing a commercial state shark permit but no federal shark permit shall not possess on any one day, or on any trip, or land from any trip, or sell, barter, trade, or exchange in excess of 33 sharks per vessel from the large coastal species group, taken from Louisiana state waters.

At its Aug. 7 meeting, the LWFC issued a declaration of emergency and notice of intent to modify rules for the harvest of shark in the large coastal shark species group (great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead, smooth hammerhead, nurse shark, blacktip shark, bull shark, lemon shark, sandbar shark, silky shark, spinner shark, tiger shark).

The declaration of emergency and notice of intent did not clearly state that commercial harvest limits of large coastal shark species were on a per-vessel per-day basis. The LWFC was scheduled to address these clarifications at their September meeting, which was cancelled due to Hurricane Gustav.

R.S. 56:2(D)(2) allows the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to take action through a declaration of emergency on any items scheduled on the agenda for a cancelled LWFC Meeting if the governor declares a state of emergency pursuant to R.S. 29:721 et seq., and the LWFC Chairman cancels the monthly meeting.

Therefore, LDWF Secretary Robert Barham, using that authority, re-promulgated the declaration of emergency, with the clarifications incorporated into the text. The LWFC was required to re-address these actions at their next regular meeting for them to remain in effect. Modifications to the August declaration are described above, and there are no changes from the September action by the secretary. All other portions of that emergency rule remain unchanged.

These rules for harvest of large coastal shark are effective at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 3, 2008. A public hearing on the notice of intent to establish permanent rules will be held as part of the LWFC meeting on November 6, 2008.

For more information, contact Harry Blanchet at 225-765-2889 or hblanchet@wlf.louisiana.gov.