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.
