WATER RIGHTS BILL moves forward
April 20, 2018
Ethel Gaubert
April 20, 2018
Members of a House legislative committee in the state House of Representatives will have about a mouth to decide whether they will take oversight – and thus debate-whether to allow a species of Caspian Sea sturgeon to be cultivated in Louisiana.
The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission last week approved a notice of intent requested by Ledet’s Louisiana Seafood, owned by Bourg native Johnny Ledet, for the raining of sterlet sturgeon.
Ledet wants to build a plant in Natchitoches to harvest the small fish’s prized eggs for commercial distribution Similar caviar plants have operated for a decade hi Florida. Ledet notes a key difference between those plants and the one he wants to build. The Florida operations
are open-air His project Is a totally closed environment, with what he says is a failsafe system to keep the aqua-cultured fish from affecting the environment.
“This project will help Louisiana’s continued recovery. We know how to do this safely and responsibly and are eager to start work ? said Ledet “We have purchased the property, we have spent tens of thousands of dollars on architecture plans, fish have been purchased, everything Is agreed, we are well-orchestrated and we are ready.”
Opponents of the project are also ready, well-orchestrated, and flexing their muscles.
“We are very concerned about the proposed introduction of non-native species of fish to Louisiana,” said Haywood “Woody” Martin, Sierra Club Delta Chapter Executive Committee Chair. “Given the numerous examples of escape of non-native species into the Louisiana natural environmental we must register our objection to introduction of the sterlet sturgeon. We suspect that such introduction could constitute a serious threat to Louisiana native species including gulf sturgeon, which is federally listed as a threatened species, freshwater shovelnose sturgeon, and pallid sturgeon, which is federally listed as an endangered species and found in the Mississippi, Atchafalaya and Red Rivers.”
The US. Fish and Wildlife Service has cited two reports, one from 2000 and the other from 2012. which theorize that sterlet could be able to crossbreed with other sturgeon found in the wild.
The Louisiana Wildlife Federation has aggressively made its own views known.
“There are too many examples of negative outcomes when introducing a non-native species for LWF to be assured that the benefits of introducing sterlet sturgeon for commercial aquaculture outweighs the potential costs to Louisiana’s natural resources.” the organization states, their concerns echoed by deputy Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Patrick Banks and some state scientists.
Ledet agrees with the dissenters an a single point which is that nobody knows what effect starlet sturgeon would have if released into the wild, because it hasn’t happened
The precautions built into his plans, he maintains, will see to it that it doesn’t While most have now become part of the proposed rules for raising sterlet in Louisiana, Ledet says he and bin associates had already created many on their own, to avoid controversy and address what concerns might exist.
Houma attorney Michael St Martin, who represents Ledet and the project said he has complete fate in the operation’s environmental safety.
“No water is discharged from this system,” he said, explaining the security procedures that start with the transport of fingerlings fro from a Florida farm the Natchitoches site.
