BATON ROUGE (AP) — Commercial fishing for non-sandbar large coastal sharks will open in Louisiana waters at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1. Federal waters will also open in the Gulf of Mexico at this time.
The non-sandbar large coastal shark group includes great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead, smooth hammerhead, nurse shark, blacktip shark, bull shark, lemon shark, silky shark, spinner shark and tiger shark.
The commercial and recreational season for the harvest of all sharks in Louisiana state waters will close from 12:01 a.m. April 1, 2016 until 12:01 p.m. July 1, 2016 per an existing fixed seasonal closure to protect shark pupping.
The commercial season will remain open in federal waters until 80 percent of the federal quota for a given fishery has been harvested or is projected to be harvested in the Gulf of Mexico.
Commercial fishing for small coastal sharks will resume in Louisiana waters on Jan. 1, as well, through Dec. 31, 2016, or until 80 percent of the federal quota (236,603 pounds dressed weight) has been met. That fishery consists of blacknose and non-blacknose small coastal sharks as well as bonnethead shark, Atlantic sharpnose shark and finetooth shark.
There is no allowable harvest at any time for all prohibited species, which include Basking shark, white shark, bigeye sand tiger, sand tiger, whale shark, smalltooth sawfish, largetooth sawfish, Atlantic angel shark, Caribbean sharpnose shark, smalltail shark, bignose shark, Caribbean reef shark, dusky shark, Galapagos shark, narrowtooth shark, night shark, bigeye sixgill shark, bigeye thresher shark, longfin mako, sevengill shark and sixgill shark.
