OVERTIME OUTDOORS: Hurricane, oil spill part of equation?

Published 4:00 am Sunday, March 31, 2019

I wonder if there are a few possible explanations or possible contributing factors related to the recent announcement by the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries that speckled trout are overfished and the population depleted along coastal Louisiana.

The state agency charged with management of our great natural resources is assessing the situation and will take whatever action(s), if warranted, to correct any problems before they spiral out of control. (See related story on this page.) LDWF biologists reported in mid-March that “landings had decreased to their lowest levels in recent years.”

Has the status quo been reached after manmade and natural calamities seriously harmed our coastal waters along the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico?

There was a manmade disaster, a terrible tragedy, nearly nine years ago that impacted the Gulf  below Venice. On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling rig exploded after an uncontrollable blowout, killing 11 of the 126 crew members, then releasing approximately 60,000 gallons of crude oil daily into the Gulf, according to U.S. government calculations, until July 15.

Five years earlier, much of Louisiana’s coast, particularly the southeast area, was smashed and inundated by Hurricane Katrina. The natural disaster struck our coast during the last week of August 2005.

After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, largest in history in U.S. waters, the Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana was concerned about marine life along the coast, including two of the most popular gamefish, speckled trout and redfish. David Cresson, CCA-Louisiana president, remembers the aftermath well and the organization’s intentions to help replenish those populations.

“One of the recommendations CCA made to Louisiana was to create hatchery systems so any lingering affects could be alleviated,” Cresson said Friday afternoon, the day after a CCA-Louisiana board meeting in Venice. “We did offer that, a solution to create a system of saltwater hatcheries across the coast so we could grow speckled trout, redfish.”

CCA-Louisiana’s proposal gained some traction at first but political red tape strangled any chance of such hatcheries materializing.

Think about it. If those hatcheries were on-line today, speckled trout could be introduced to the fishery labeled overfished and depleted.

What we face, possibly, are recommendations to modify the daily creel limit and/or minimum size limit. 

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.