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Hurricanes Close Coastal Area to Deer, Rabbit Hunters

Posted on: Friday, 7 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By JOE MACALUSO

Lingering floodwaters and damage from two major storms have closed the entire coastal area to deer and rabbit hunters.

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists said Thursday that areas in Iberia and St. Mary parishes south of La. 14 and U.S. 90 are closed effective today, but left open the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area. The plan was announced during LDWF briefings at Thursday's Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting.

The Enforcement Division, Wildlife, Fisheries and Personnel sections accounted for and gave details of the agency's actions and assessments since the Aug. 29 passage of Hurricane Katrina through the southeastern parishes and Hurricane Rita's Sept. 24 sweep through remaining coastal parishes.

LDWF secretary Dwight Landreneau said department personnel were first responders to search-and-rescue operations in Orleans, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes after Katrina, and did the same in the central and southwestern parishes after Rita.

Enforcement spokesman Lt. Col. Keith LaCaze said agents and other LDWF personnel rescued nearly 21,000 people from southeastern parishes and an estimated "several hundred more" after Rita. The evacuations included working in Tulane and Charity hospitals in New Orleans.

Assistant secretary John Roussel said the estimated $1.3 billion in commercial and recreational fishery losses will increase significantly when the initial loss assessments from Rita are added.

Roussel said the state's oyster industry is closed and the storms' total effect on the shrimp, finfish and crab industries will be felt in the months to come. He estimated the state's coastal and near-coast charterboat industry is wiped out.

"I'm confident the resource (fish) will recover, but there's lots of damage along the entire coast. Before we can get the people back, we have to get the infrastructure back ... the launches, ice houses, docks, marinas, homes, lodges so that we can take advantage of the resources," Roussel said.

He said the state's request from federal aid sources is $19 million for the charterboat industry from Katrina's damage, and added that "figures will increase substantially when we assess Rita's damage."Roussel said the LDWF and several federal and state agencies are monitoring water quality, specifically in Lake Pontchartrain.

Roussel explained that a low-water level in the Mississippi River prevents opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway to introduce freshwater into the lake, but added the LDWF will keep open an option to ask the Corps of Engineers to open that spillway through next spring.

Inland Fisheries biologist Joe Shepard said the freshwater fishery in Plaquemines "is totally devastated," and that Katrina's storm surge pushed saltwater into all rivers bordering Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain. That resulted in fish kills throughout these systems.

He said Rita's effects are still being studied, though he reported a massive fish kill in the marshes south of Amelia and scattered fish kills in the Lake Verret drainage area, the Atchafalaya Spillway, Bayou Teche and other freshwater areas along the coast.

"There is some good news. (Research) teams are finding good water and bass and crappie in the (Atchafalaya) basin," Shepard said, adding that the Corps is releasing Mississippi River water through the Port Allen locks to introduce water into the Verret and Spillway areas.

Assistant secretary Parke Moore and his staff detailed the storms' effects on the habitat and in the LDWF's wildlife management areas.

Estimates are that the Pearl River sustained $27 million in timber losses, that 60 percent of the timber in Washington Parish was lost, that the agency suffered severe losses in facilities throughout the coastal area, but there are no plans to close any of the state's WMAs.

Fur & Refuge Section administrator Phil Bowman said there was extensive damage to submerged vegetation along the coast, which reduces food sources for migratory waterfowl.

LDWF bosses said the duck and goose seasons will open and remain open as scheduled.

Also noted was that as many as 30 department personnel lost homes and personal belongings in the storm, and that the LDWF has set up an Employee Disaster Relief Fund.

In other action, the LWFC approved a plan to extend the alligator season through Oct. 30; the addition of more than 7,000 acres to the 63,000-acre Maurepas Swamp WMA; the completed outline of the Russell Sage WMA; to appeal a verdict that allows several hunting groups to retain their clubs inside the Maurepas Swamp WMA; set Marsh 2006 dates for the Crab Trap Removal Program; and, set meeting dates for Jan. 5 and Feb. 2 next year.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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