Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission Adopts Notice of Intent on Inshore Recreational Reef Sites

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries commission adopted a notice of intent to designate and protect 31 inshore fishing reefs as part of the LDWF Artificial Reef Program.

Louisiana’s Artificial Reef Program includes a robust offshore ‘Rigs to Reef’ component, the backbone of our reef program. ‘Rigs to Reef’ was established in 1986 to transform decommissioned oil platforms into artificial reefs to create vital offshore habitat for marine life across the food chain. These platforms also provide productive fishing grounds and dive sites and an economical and responsible way to retire obsolete, donated rigs.

In the last two years the Artificial Reef Council have added inshore and nearshore components to the program that are modeled after the successful ‘Rigs to Reef’ program. Today’s commission action designates and protects the 31 inshore artificial reef sites into the future. In the first 20 years of the artificial reef program LDWF built 16 inshore reefs, during the last 8 years we have nearly doubled that number.

To view the full notice of intent, please visit here.

Interested persons may submit comments relevant to the proposed rule by June 4, 2015, to Mike McDonough, Office of Fisheries, P.O. Box 98000, Baton Rouge, LA 70898-1000 or via email at mmcdonough@wlf.la.gov.

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is charged with managing and protecting Louisiana’s abundant natural resources. For more information, visit us at www.wlf.louisiana.gov on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ldwffb or follow us on Twitter @LDWF.