§499.2.  Butterfly and bottom nets; Lake Pontchartrain and Intracoastal Waterway

A.  Notwithstanding the provisions of R.S. 56:801(15) to the contrary, in that area of Lake Pontchartrain south and east of the Interstate Highway 10 Bridge, south and eastward to include the waters of Lake St. Catherine and its passes, the Rigolets, Unknown Pass, and Chef Menteur Pass and south and eastward to Lake Borgne and that portion of the Mississippi River Gulf outlet and the Intracoastal Waterway from the Industrial Canal eastward to Lake Borgne, shrimp may be taken with butterfly nets and bottom nets.  However, in Chef Menteur Pass, in the Rigolets and in those portions of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne which are within two miles of the Rigolets or Chef Menteur Pass, a butterfly net or bottom net may be used to take shrimp only when suspended from a fishing boat or vessel which is motor-propelled and underway.  

B.  No butterfly net or bottom net may be suspended from a piling, float, barge, raft, bridge, or shore installation in the Rigolets or Chef Menteur Pass or in those portions of Lake Pontchartrain or Lake Borgne which are within two miles of the Rigolets or the Chef Menteur Pass.  However, in the Chef Menteur Pass a properly licensed single butterfly net measuring not more than twenty-two feet by twenty-two feet may be suspended from a wharf which has been approved by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and which is attached to privately owned or leased immovable property or to a structure that is not attached to privately owned or leased property if the owner has possessed a permit for such structure from the United States Corps of Engineers prior to 1988, provided that the owner or leaseholder is present on the immovable property or permitted structure at all times that the net is in the water.  

Added by Acts 1972, No. 558, §2; Acts 1987, No. 517, §1; Acts 1988, No. 620, §1; Acts 1990, No. 581, §1.