Menhaden Charades in the Gulf

“Charades is a parlor game, as well as commonly used word to describe a deceptive pretense or act meant to create a false appearance…”

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Louisiana Menhaden Bills Clear Senate Committee. What About HCR5 and Bull Reds?

Earlier this month, we talked about four new menhaden bills that were heading to a House Committee Hearing. Three of those bills survived the House. Earlier this morning, those three bills cleared the Louisiana Senate Committee on Natural Resources and are headed to the full Senate floor. HB 757 boosts fines for buffer zone violations. HB 872 requires AIS tracking on reduction vessels. HB 886 improves catch reporting and data access. These are small steps toward accountability in Louisiana’s industrial menhaden fishery, and we at the American Saltwater Guides Association appreciate any progress.

That being said, after HB 855 (establishing a minimum depth limit for purse seines) fell flat on the house floor, this package of bills lost a significant scale of its impact. The three bills that have survived to this point do not accomplish enough to start resolving the issues of this limitless forage fish reduction fishery. They tweak enforcement and transparency (with is positive) without addressing the biggest problems: massive bycatch, localized depletion of forage right where our inshore fisheries need it most, and the lack of any coast wide quota or meaningful habitat protection. The one bill that would have banned operations in water shallower than 22 feet — exactly where the worst bycatch happens — died on the House floor with a close to 50/50 split vote. Without HB 855, this package improves reporting and tracking while the core impacts on Louisiana’s marine resources keep rolling along. It feels more like window dressing than real reform.

Sure, we can try our best to be glass half full (though this is more like 0.1% full), but there’s a simultaneous effort happening behind Louisiana’s political curtains that clouds our positivity. While these three menhaden bills advanced through committee, House Concurrent Resolution 5 (HCR5) by Rep. Joseph Orgeron is also moving forward. This resolution would let LDWF issue special permits allowing certain fishing tournaments and rodeos to kill giant bull redfish over 27 inches. Yes, you’re reading this correctly. Permitted harvest of the big spawning females that rebuild the stock and make Louisiana redfishing legendary. The same fish the legislation just moved to protect from harvest just around year ago. Led by the same representative using redfish conservation as a talking point for this weakened effort to curtail the menhaden industry. Now supported by many community members who said back in ’24 said they, “could get behind a bull red moratorium, as long as creel limits on slot fish were shielded.”

This is extraordinarily foolish.

Louisiana anglers and advocates fought hard to protect those oversized reds for a reason. They are the future of the fishery. Letting even a handful of rodeos start harvesting them again sets a terrible precedent. If a few events get the green light because they’ve been around a while and “used to have a bull red category”, every other rodeo and tournament in the state will line up demanding the same exception. Before long, the slot limit that finally gave the stock a fighting chance will have more holes than Swiss cheese.

As you begin to educate yourself on HCR5, please heed our warning on a single notion: don’t buy the line that these fish are needed for “scientific research.” LDWF already has full authority to collect any red drum samples they need for legitimate science. The department can tag, sample, or harvest specimens whenever data gaps require so. HCR5 was not formulated to improve research. It’s about handing out trophies and photo ops at the expense of a recovering fishery. The claim that rodeos somehow need to kill these giants to “advance science” is not truthful — and that supposed scientific benefit is nowhere near worth “opening Pandora’s box” on giant redfish harvest a few short seasons after it was locked shut.

Louisiana’s recreational red drum fishery is an economic powerhouse that supports far more jobs, businesses, and tax revenue than any industrial reduction operation ever will. Giant reds are the fish that draw anglers from across the country. Killing them for a handful of rodeo weigh-ins is penny-wise and pound-foolish.

We need our legislators to protect what works. The menhaden bills are a start, but they’re nowhere near enough. And HCR5 is a step backward on redfish at the exact moment we should be doubling down on conservation. Should we assume the simultaneous nature of these two campaigns is mere political coincidence? Time will tell.

If you fish Louisiana waters, contact your senator on the Natural Resources Committee today. Tell them the menhaden bills need real teeth, that these 3 bills are barely scratching the surface and HCR5 needs to die. Louisiana redfish deserve better. Louisiana’s coastal economy is driven by angling tourism. The industry and the resource deserve more respect than they currently receive.

Learn more about Gulf Menhaden Charades in a conversation with Louisiana guides who have been involved this process since Day 1. Capt. Bailey Short and Capt. Ty Hibbs break down the walls around Gulf menhaden and bull redfish harvest in Louisiana. The latest episode of the Guide Post Podcast (Episode 201) is available now on Apple and Spotify: