Jeffrey D. Plumlee and Carol Franze

Louisiana has the largest commercial fishing industry calculated by landings (or weight of fish harvested) in the lower 48 contiguous states. In 2022, Louisiana landed two-thirds of all the seafood harvested in the Gulf and was home to two of the top-five American fishery ports, Empire-Venice, which is No. 2, and Intracoastal City, which is No. 5. The industry is diverse and complex, with four major landings categories — shrimp, crab, oyster and finfish — that are unique in seasonality, harvest method and location. The supporting infrastructure and communities of fishermen around the state are hubs of Louisiana culture. In 2014, in response to the needs of these communities, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) and the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program (LSG) at LSU formed a collaborative partnership to develop timely educational materials along with industry support called Louisiana Fisheries Forward.

The work of Louisiana Fisheries Forward stemmed from a need for professional development in the fishing industries and the need for communicable guidance for fishermen to navigate rules and best management practices. Eleven years later, the total education and outreach information includes 102 fact sheets, 54 videos, a website housing news and information (lafisheriesforward.org) and four biannual fisheries summits in New Orleans with peak attendance of more than 400. Louisiana Fisheries Forward programming has centered on large-scale industry issues, including catch reporting with trip tickets, direct marketing, best business practices and training. However, because of the number of topics and a need for targeted outreach to some of the most vulnerable and regionally specific fisheries, faculty with the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and LSG proposed regionally specific fisheries summits.

The location of the first Louisiana Regional Fisheries Summit was chosen to pilot the concept that regionally specific programming would attract fishery stakeholders — specifically, fishermen that would not normally travel to a large biannual meeting in New Orleans. Additionally, the summit could be more specific and highlight regionally specific issues that are not shared among the other regions. The Pontchartrain Basin stretches from Lake Maurepas east to Chandeleur Sound south of the Mississippi state border and represents a large portion of Louisiana’s oyster, blue crab and finfish fisheries landings. The region has had numerous recent disasters from both hurricanes (Zeta in 2020, Ida in 2021 and Francine in 2024) and three consecutive years (2018 to 2020) where the Bonnet Carré Spillway was opened, peaking in 2019 when the spillway was open for 122 days. The 2019 flood resulted in the declaration of a fisheries disaster when it was estimated to cause a 13.9% reduction in dockside value for oysters and a 21.1% reduction in dockside value for blue crab, both of which represent greater than 40% of the statewide landings. In addition to these large-scale environmental disturbances that alter fisheries’ production and landings, smaller-scale issues relating to land development, habitat restoration and introduced water resulted in a large perceived need to engage stakeholders and provide outreach. Concerns such as these led to the first Louisiana Regional Fisheries Summit in Slidell in March of 2025.

The summit featured four sessions: restoration, disaster aid, water quality and industry resilience. The restoration session had speakers from both the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration discussing large-scale restoration efforts, such as the Maurepas River Diversion, and small-scale Coastal Wetlands Protection, Planning and Restoration Act projects, including marsh creation and shoreline protection. The disaster aid session included speakers from LSG’s Law and Policy Program and LDWF covering topics about preparing for disasters and disaster aid relief programs. The water quality session included speakers from LSG, LSU and industry leaders on the impact of changes in salinity, fisheries and fishing opportunities. Lastly, the industry resilience session included speakers from LSG and the Louisiana Department of Health on industry initiatives to diversify the workforce and marketing rules for imported products.

In addition to 12 speakers, the summit included 17 vendors from state and federal agencies. The summit also held a contest for infographics on coastal research in the Pontchartrain Basin for Louisiana graduate students. The contest received five final submissions, and the winner was awarded a $500 travel award.

The 108 attendees to the summit included commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, university employees, students, nonprofit organizations, seafood processors, and state and federal agency employees. In immediate-response content surveys, approximately 80% of the attendees reported learning from the presenters, with the highest positive learning response rate from the restoration session, where 85.7% of attendees reported learning something about restoration in the Pontchartrain basin.

The summit indicated a clear need for regionally specific programming that is attended by a diverse group of industry representatives to support regional fishery content. These lessons will help improve program development at both the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and Louisiana Sea Grant in preparation for the next Louisiana Regional Fisheries Summit set for 2027.

Jeffrey D. Plumlee is the state fisheries specialist for the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and Louisiana Sea Grant and an assistant professor in the LSU AgCenter School of Renewable Natural Resources. Carol Franze is a Louisiana Sea Grant and LSU AgCenter extension agent.

This article appears in the fall 2025 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.

The first Louisiana Regional Fisheries Summit was held in Slidell in March 2025. Photo provided by Jeffrey D. Plumlee