Preview:

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA
No. 97-CA-1367 LOUISIANA SEAFOOD MANAGEMENT COUNCIL ET AL. Versus LOUISIANA WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES COMMISSION ET AL.

ON APPEAL FROM THE NINETEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, FOR THE PARISH OF EAST BATON ROUGE, HONORABLE JANICE G. CLARK, JUDGE

LEMMON, Justice* This is a direct appeal from a judgment of the trial court that declared unconstitutional several portions of Act No. 1316 of 1995, entitled the Louisiana Marine Resources Conservation Act and colloquially called the "gill net ban" law.1

Facts Act 1316 of 1995 significantly restricted the use of gill nets by commercial fishermen in Louisiana waters. The principal limitations were on the manner in which gill nets can be used. The Act restricts a commercial fisherman to the use of one "strike net"2 and, after a two-year phase-in period, to the taking of mullets and pompano. And even for those species, the periods of time during which fish can be taken were significantly limited.

*

Kimball, J., not on panel, recused. Rule IV, Part II,

Download 97-CA-1367 LOUISIANA SEAFOOD MANAGEMENT COUNCIL, ET AL v. LOUISIANA WILDLIFE AND

Louisiana Law