too 



90 

 80 

 70 

 60 

 50 

 40 

 30 

 20 



Other Commefcial Commercial Liirestock Poultry 

 Crops Catfish Craylish 



Category 



Figure 3-6. Water usage for agriculture in Louisiana 

 in 1967 (Louisiana Department Public 

 Works 1970). 



n 



n 



Figure 3-7. Volume of water used for agriculture in 

 each basin (Louisiana Department of Pub- 

 lic Works 1970). 



60„ 



50 



40^ 



30_ 



20 



10 



3S^ 



14% 



JS% 



15% 



12t 



J-F-M * 



S-O-N-D 



Figure 3-8. Percentage distribution of monthly water 

 usage in southwestern Louisiana in 1967 

 (Louisiana Department of Pubhc Works 

 1970). 



Table 3.14. Source and volume (millions of cubic 

 meters) of water for irrigation in south- 

 west Louisiana (Louisiana Department 

 of Public Works 1970). 



3.2.4. COMMERCIAL TRAPPING AND FISHING 



Production. The commercial harvest of wildlife 

 resources on the Chenier Plain includes furbearers and 

 commercial fishes. The fur and commercial fishery in- 

 dustries are basically noncompetitive since they re- 

 quire different equipment and harvest from different 

 habitats; however, both industries involve organisms 

 which depend on wetlands for at least a portion of 

 their life cycles. 



Furbearers : The trapping of mammals (primarily 

 muskrat and nutria) for fur is more closely controlled, 

 since trapping occurs primarily on private lands or 

 refuges for which permits or leases are required. Musk- 

 rats, which represent a significant proportion of the 

 total fur catch, are fairly easy to quantify. The 1973 

 harvest of nutria and muskrat in southwest Louisiana 

 amounted to 749,670 and 86,087 pelts, respectively 

 (table 3.15). During the same period, the combined 

 estimated harvest of both species from the Texas por- 

 tion of the Chenier Plain was about 35,000 pelts (Bill 

 Brownlee, pers. comm., Texas Parks and Wildlife De- 

 partment). 



In tlie western part of Louisiana, muskrat and 

 nutria harvest totaled about 1,600,000 pelts in 1975 

 (fig. 3-9). The number of pelts harvested in eastern 

 Louisiana has also fluctuated, but appears to be in- 

 creasing after a low during the 1970 to 1974 period. 



The annual harvest density of muskrat and nutria 

 on the Chenier Plain was estimated at 147,000 and 

 429,000 pelts, respectively, by Palmisano (1972a and 

 1972b) (tabic 3.16). These estimates were in line with 

 the actual pelt harvest statistics for western Louisiana 

 and for eastern Texas (appendix 6.2). In addition, the 

 expected harvest of nutria and muskrat by basin indi- 

 cated that Sabine and Calcasieu basins should yield 

 the most muskrat and the Memientau Basin should be 

 optimum for nutria (figs. 3-10 and 3-1 1). The values 

 of the pelts to the trappers was around $3.2 million. 



38 



