BATON ROUGE, LA - Attorney General Jeff Landry has filed a motion to
intervene in a lawsuit attempting to stifle recreational fishing in Louisiana.
The lawsuit filed by commercial fishermen challenges a
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) rule that reallocates the Gulf red
grouper quota from 24%/76% rec/commercial to 40.7%/59.3% rec/commercial.
Attorney General Landry has requested to intervene to defend the rule.
“I will continue fighting to ensure Louisiana remains
‘The Sportsman’s Paradise’ for all who live and visit here,” said Attorney
General Landry. “Recreational and commercial fishing have coexisted in
Louisiana for ages; we cannot allow one to be preserved at the expense of the
other.”
The rule implements new quotas derived from NMFS
recalculating the original recreational and commercial allocation after
essentially “calibrating” the original recreational harvest numbers so they
reflect units as the current quotas. Under the new rule, quotas are set using
catch estimated through the current Fishing Effort Survey (FES) rather than the
old one. The FES data shows that there has been more recreational fishing
effort than previously estimated with the old surveys, so using FES results in
higher catch estimates than the earlier surveys for the same fishing effort.
“This precedent would have far-reaching effects as the
arguments and remedies at issue apply broadly to all recreational fishing –
including red snapper and other fish caught and landed in Louisiana in large
numbers,” explained Attorney General Landry. “If this assault is left
unchecked, many of Louisiana’s recreational fishermen would be greatly
impacted; so I will do all that I legally can to stop the rule from being
revoked.”