Benjamin Ashford|10,000 red drum to be stocked in Calcasieu Lake estuary as part of pilot program

BATON ROUGE,Benjamin Ashford La. (AP) — About 10,000 red drum fingerlings will be stocked in the Calcasieu Lake estuary as part of a pilot project to investigate the biological and ecological efficacy of stocking waterways with hatchery-raised fish, state wildlife officials said Tuesday.

The fish are expected to be stocked later this year or in 2024. The Recreational Fisheries Research Institute will cover the costs of stocking and genetic analysis under the permit issued by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, officials said in a news release.

Although red drum have been stocked in other states, the department said it wants to caution against expecting too much from the effort in Louisiana.

Other news California aims to tap beavers, once viewed as a nuisance, to help with water issues and wildfires They can create lush habitats that lure species back into urban areas, enhance groundwater supplies and buffer against wildfires. US pulls plug on authorization for lithium exploration next to a national wildlife refuge in Nevada Federal land managers have pulled the plug on a Canadian mining company’s lithium exploration project near a national wildlife refuge in southern Nevada. Drones sweep for sharks along New York coast as encounters rise with beachgoers A recent spate of human encounters with sharks have made officials and beachgoers more vigilant. Five people have reported being bitten by sharks in some of New York’s most popular beaches since Monday. ‘Smartphones’ for sharks: Scientists upgrade sensors to keep track of Cape Cod’s white sharks Scientists monitoring the white shark population in the waters off Cape Cod are attaching better sensors to the predators, including cameras.

“With the recent stock assessment showing that our red drum population has an over 1.5 million fish deficit compared to the long term recruitment average, stocking efforts will not solve the issues facing red drum in Louisiana,” LDWF Assistant Secretary for Fisheries Patrick Banks said. “Stocking of hatchery-reared fish is rarely the solution to a fish population problem in nature, but it could serve a useful purpose in the future. We hope to determine if stocked fish are able to survive in the Calcasieu Estuary and at levels that can be tracked via genetic testing.”

If the pilot study shows positive results that might be useful for fisheries management, it will be up to the department’s secretary to determine if other stocking programs could participate or if an increase in the stocking effort would be appropriate.