The Atchafalaya Basin's landscape is being threatened again by a federal project. The Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and other groups oppose work to make 12 cuts into a 5,000-acre area. THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

Two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “restoration” projects implemented years ago in Beau Bayou and Buffalo Cove did everything but improve water quality after completion in the Atchafalaya Basin.

A controversial river diversion project currently in the works, the East Grand Lake Project, will have worse results, according to those who oppose it.

This endeavor proposed by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and embraced by the Corps (a permit was issued in December 2023) could be even more disastrous than the other two projects in the nation’s last great overflow swamp. The plan is to divert water from the Atchafalaya River and Bayou Sorrel via 12 cuts into the swampy 5,000-acre area.

We watched helplessly as Buffalo Cove – once so expansive, pristine and deep the bottom could be seen from a houseboat – became a silt-laden woodland leaving just an ever-narrowing cut to get to the channel leading to Grevemberg, one of the most beautiful areas of the Atchafalaya Basin. It’s enough to make you cry.

Conservationists and fishermen, both commercial and recreational, say the project would introduce more sand, silt, pesticides and fertilizer from agricultural areas along the Atchafalaya River. As a result, wetlands will be filled, harmful algal blooms will take over, oxygen levels will be depleted and aquatic life will be snuffed out.

Flooding and environmental damage are other key concerns for the East Grand Lake Project, which has triggered opposition from the Sierra Club, Healthy Gulf, Waterkeeper Alliance and Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association. Atchafalaya Basinkeeper sued in May 2024 to halt the project. Also, resolutions against the project have been passed by Iberville, Assumption and St. Martin parishes.

It’s critical we support the conservation groups and parish governments who oppose this plan. It ominously states in their suit: “The loss of flood carrying capacity will be irreversible. There will be no second chance to reverse this damage once begun.”

Sadly, we’ve seen that chapter before.

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Acadiana’s many bass tournament fishermen might want to try their luck and test their skills vs. bass in the 4th annual Louisiana Bass Cats Father’s Day Weekend Open Tournament.

Some lucky dad and his tournament partner could win the annual tournament’s $1,000 first-place prize (based on a 25-boat field) on June 14 at Lake Fausse Pointe out of Marsh Field Landing. It’s a great tournament to start off the summer and a quasi (albeit welcome) break from the bass club tournament and Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series schedule.

Entry fee is $100, plus an optional big bass pot fee of $10. Registration begins after 4 a.m. with a takeoff at safe daylight and weigh-in at 3 p.m.

There’s a five-bass limit with a 12-inch minimum length limit.

Last year’s Father’s Day Weekend tournament featured a 17-boat field that faced a lake grudgingly giving up bass, sort of like it is now based on Louisiana Bass Anglers results from June 7. It took less than 8 pounds for Raven and Brandy Owens to win this past weekend’s tournament held out of the Fairfax Foster Bailey Memorial Landing.

Last year’s tournament, held June 15, was won by Austin Theriot and his fishin’ buddy Braxton Resweber with 9 pounds, 7.5 ounces, worth $750. Two father-and-son teams were right behind them with Ry Savoy and his dad, Tee Roy Savoy, runners-up with 9 pounds even for $450, and Jacob Shoopman and his pop, Don Shoopman, third with 8-8.5 pounds worth $300.

Who’ll get on the right bite after all the rain forecast for this week? We’ll find out Saturday on Lake Fausse Pointe. C’mon out, wet a line, and have fun on your day, even if it isn’t your day!

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More and more red snapper are being harvested by recreational fishermen in the Gulf of America off Louisiana’s coast.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries released the estimated red snapper landings on June 5. The LA Creel count through the first four weeks of the season shows that 184,823 pounds, or 20.7 percent, of Louisiana’s 2025 annual private recreational allocation, have been harvested as of May 25.
Louisiana’s red snapper season got underway May 1 in both state and federal waters, seven days a week with a daily creel limit of four fish per person and a 16-inch minimum size limit. The season stays open until recreational landings approach or reach Louisiana’s allocation.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.