At its March meeting, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC) passed a Notice of Intent (NOI) to establish a five fish per person recreational bag and possession limit for Wahoo.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) presented the following rationale to aid the Commissioners with their decision:
- Trips with large amounts of Wahoo landed in Texas from the Flower Garden National Banks have prompted discussions of potential federal management of the species at the Gulf Council level.
- Preferred management of the species should be at the state level to avoid potentially more restrictive federal regulations for isolated events.
- Proposed bag limit encompasses 100% of the retained bag limits LDWF has observed dockside and the majority of those trips are not to the Flower Garden Banks.
- Regulations provide a precautionary approach in terms of reducing large one-time catches from Wahoo aggregations.
“This is a prime example of LDWF’s commitment to expanding state management and increasing fishing opportunities of offshore species for our sportsmen,” said LDWF Secretary, Madison Sheahan. “I am a firm believer that the best management for Louisiana fisheries comes at the state level, as our anglers and biologists are the ones interacting with our natural resources on a daily basis which allows us to provide more active management to improve our fisheries and increase opportunity.”
A copy of the Notice of Intent can be found here.
Interested persons may submit written comments relative to the proposed rule to Jason Adriance, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, P.O. Box 98000, Baton Rouge, LA 70898-9000, or via e-mail to jadriance@wlf.la.gov by May 1, 2025.