BATON ROUGE (AP) — The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission has scheduled a special meeting for Thursday to consider open dates for the 2015 autumn shrimp season. That means the season will likely open before the commission's next regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 6.
At the commission's July meeting, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham had requested authority to open the season when department biologists told him white shrimp were nearing marketable sizes in Louisiana's marshes.
NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune’s Todd Masson reports the commission, however, elected to maintain control over the fishery, and instructed the department to inform the board if it felt the season needed to be opened before the August meeting.
If the commission is not able to assemble a quorum of its seven members at Thursday's meeting, control will automatically transfer to Barham.
