36 Louisiana Sportsman^ | April 2015
news breakers
Plan now waiting on congressional approval, LDWF says By Patrick Bonin
F
or the first time ever, all five Gulf states have banded
together to create a management framework that —
if ultimately approved by Congress — would finally
remove the red snapper fishery from the control of
the federal government.
Randy Pausina, head of fisheries for the Louisiana
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said the cover letter for
the plan was being wrapped up late April 11 and details of the
framework were being sent to each Gulf state’s congressional
delegation the following day.
“In a nutshell, it removes red snapper from the federal govern-
ment completely — commercially and recreationally,” Pausinasaid. “And it removes it from the Fisheries Management Plan
and from the Gulf Council’s authority, and puts it over into this
new group that we’re going to form.“We would then put a management plan together through
this authority, which would be the five state directors, and give
stock assessments, set up our management scheme, set up our
monitoring and our season framework. Then bless it, get it out
there and start managing red snapper. That’s really it.”
Pausina said he and his counterparts with Texas, Mississippi,
Alabama and Florida formulated the states’ plan in February
after continued issues with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery
Management Council and NOAA Fisheries.
“Finally, the five state directors locked ourselves in a room in
New Orleans a month ago and said, ‘We’re not leaving until we
come up with a framework that we can give to Congress and
say, ‘Look, if you’re going to do something, do this,’” he said.
“And that’s what we did.
“We did it pretty quickly. We’re pretty proud of it.”
Rather than each Gulf state’s delegation formulating indi-
vidual bills to address specific state-related issues as had been
done in the past, the new framework already has all states’ sup-
port and presents a united front to Congress, he said.
“We needed to give some guidance so that Congress knows
these five Gulf states are in unison,” Pausina said. “We’re not
presenting the bill; we’re just presenting the framework that, ifGulf states’ plan could end
federal snapper management
State season now open
Red snapper fishing began March 20, with a seven-day-
a-week season until further notice. The daily creel is two
fish measuring at least 16 inches, the LDWF announced.