§638.5.  Fishery standards

The commission shall adopt such rules and regulations consistent with the authority granted by this Chapter and in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, for the harvesting, conservation, management, and sustainability  of all species of fish, in accordance with the following standards:

(1)  Conservation, management, and sustainability measures shall prevent overfishing while achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield while maintaining healthy, plentiful stocks.  In fact, every effort will be made at all times to prevent a harvest from exceeding the safe upper limit of harvests which can be taken consistently year after year without diminishing the stocks so that the stock is truly inexhaustible and perpetually renewable.

(2)  Conservation, management, and sustainability measures shall be based upon the best scientific, economic, biological, anthropological, and sociological information available.

(3)  To the extent practicable, an individual stock or unit of fish shall be managed as a unit throughout its range within the state's jurisdictional authority and interrelated stocks of fish and other renewable fish resources shall be managed in close coordination while considering their supporting habitats.

(4)  If it becomes necessary to allocate or assign fishing privileges among various fishermen, such allocations to the extent practicable shall be:

(a)  Fair and equitable to all such fishermen.

(b)  Reasonably calculated to promote conservation.

(c)  Carried out in such a manner that no particular individual, corporation, or other legal entity acquires an excessive share of such privileges.

(d)  In the best interest of the citizens of Louisiana.

(5)  Conservation, management, and sustainability measures shall, where practicable, promote efficiency in the conservation, management, and sustainability of fish resources; except that no such measure shall have economic allocation as its sole purpose.

(6)  Conservation, management, and sustainability measures shall, where practicable, minimize costs and avoid unnecessary duplication.

(7)  Conservation, management, and sustainability measures may take into account and allow for variations among, and contingencies in, fisheries, resources, and catches.

Acts 1991, No. 708, §1; Acts 2014, No. 553, §1.