New LDWF secretary asking for input

Published 6:00 am Sunday, February 19, 2017

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Jack Montoucet, Louisiana’s new secretary for the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, was in town last week giving a short talk to a convention of police jurors.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">During the time he hit on some of the things he plans to bring to the position.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We’ll be looking at things very objectively,” he said, adding that everyone was invited to their various meetings, that he was making trips throughout the state to find out what is going on in each area and that he wanted the department to better serve the state.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Montoucet said when issues come up he would bring all the people involved together, would sit down and talk.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We might not always agree, but will always take it in and incorporate ideas,” he said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He briefly hit on some of the top issues, one of them the fishing for red snapper. In Southwest Louisiana sportsmen also have more than a passing interest in the setting of hunting seasons and zones for ducks and geese as well as the importation of deer kills from other states.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Last month the LDWF commission set the 2017 red snapper season for recreational fisherman to begin Feb. 1. It’s a seven-day a week season with the limit two fish measuring at least 16 inches per day. Fishing in the Gulf is out to 9 nautical miles and will go on until a quota of 1.1 million pounds of fish has been caught.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Some fishermen have asked for a weekend only season with a daily limit of three, which would extend the season.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Also, fishermen are pushing for the state to take over the management of the red snapper fishing in federal waters (charting the poundage taken) off the Louisiana coast. Thirty miles off the Cameron coast there is good snapper fishing but the federal season only extends for a certain number of days and it stops when a certain poundage is reached.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">As for the duck season, most hunters would prefer a later start with all three zones having their seasons run until the last part of January. The state is divided into three zones — West, East and Coastal. Only the East Zone, which takes up most of the state and dives into Southwest Louisiana, allowed duck hunting until the last week of January. The goose seasons were the same for all.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">A March 1 date was set for the implementation of regulations regarding the importation of deer meat, skulls, hides, capes, antlers, etc., from other states. This came about due to the discovery of the chronic wasting disease in some deer in other states.</span>

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<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Beginning Monday the LDWF will convene a series of public hearings to gather comments on proposed hunting seasons, Wildlife Management Areas rules and regulation changes.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They will meet every day of the week with the local meeting set for 6 p.m. Friday in the LSU Ag center building on Gulf Highway (south of Burton Coliseum).</span>