LDWF Developing Spend Plan for 2020-21 Hurricanes, Seeks Input From Fishing Community Members Affected

On January 29, 2024, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) allocated $27 million to respond to the impacts of the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 Louisiana fishery disasters. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) staff must develop and submit a spend plan to NOAA by June 8, 2024 to outline our recommendations on how those dollars should be distributed.

A crucial step in the development of that spend plan will be the collection of public comments from members of the fishing community who were impacted by these hurricanes. LDWF will announce a public comment portal in the next few weeks to collect this valuable input.

Once our plan has been submitted, it must be approved by NOAA before applications for that funding can be accepted. This process could take several months, but our priority is always to get checks to those impacted as quickly as possible.