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NEWS

Natural Resources Committee moves 3 bills to Senate

Caitie Burkes
Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE -- The Senate Natural Resources Committee Thursday moved to the full Senate for debate Senate Bill 77, authored by Sen. Eddie Lambert, R-Gonzales, allowing fishermen near the Atchafalaya Basin to use gill nets to capture shad as baitfish.

The bill would also let fishermen take shad during the closed season and on weekends of the open season, which is prohibited under present law, though no more than 50 pounds of shad could be taken per day.  The shad gill net could not exceed 150 feet in length and would have to be attended at all times.

“There’s a substantial (number) of people who fish trotlines and they use shad as cut bait,” Lambert said. “What they want is get fresh shad to bait their trotlines.”

After some communication issues between the Catahoula Lake Commission and the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, proposed Senate Bill 103.

It would provide that if the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission fails to take action on the commission’s proposed rules and regulations within 180 days after submission, they would automatically go into effect.

Senate Bill 125 by Sen. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, authorizes the sale of a certain 150-acre, LSU AgCenter-owned tract of land in Tensas Parish. Thompson said the AgCenter brought the legislation to him a couple years ago.

“They’re willing to sell 50 acres of property at fair market value to the Port of St. Joe in the Parish of Tensas,” Thompson explained.

Thompson had been involved in efforts to develop a port along the Mississippi River in Tensas, an effort that has earned the support of the Legislature.

Committee Chairman Norby Chabert, R-Houma, moved to report the bill favorably to the full Senate “in the name of strong economic development.”