Table 3.27. Length (km) and area (km ) of navigation canals in the Chenier Plain. 



Basin 



Vermilion 

 Chenier 

 Mermentau 

 Calcasieu 

 Sabine 

 East Bay 

 Total 



First order canals 



53.28 



592.2 



Second order canals 



19.95 



2,850.1 



Total 



73.23 



3,442.3 



^Major canals dredged and maintained to facilitate both interstate and intrastate navigation. 

 Canals for small craft, or short, deep spurs to allow access from first order canals to industrial sites. 



3.2.5 SPORT HUNTING AND FISHING 



Magnitude of the Activity . The magnitude and 

 value of sport fishing and hunting have traditionally 

 been difficult to assess because reliable samples are 

 difficult to obtain, and a large sampling effort is re- 

 quired. Three approaches have been used: license sales 

 analysis, creel censuses, and telephone surveys. All 

 have been used within the Chenier Plain, but none of 

 them was designed for the study area specifically. 



This report presents the available data from studies 

 in southwestern Louisiana and eastern Texas. To evalu- 

 ate the sport hunting and fishing effort in the Chenier 

 Plain itself, average man-days/man/yr spent in hunt- 

 ing or observing wildhfe were calculated from these 

 studies and applied to population figures for the 

 Chenier Plain basins. The value of each activity was 

 then calculated by applying appropriate dollar values/ 

 man-day. Thus, the results (the number of man-days, 

 demand for, and dollar value of hunting and fishing) 

 are directly proportional to the population size. The 

 human population within the study area is so small 

 (with the exception of the industrial area along Sabine 

 Lake) that its sport fishing and hunting impact is al- 

 most negligible. The dense populations just north of 

 tlie study area boundaries, however, use the Chenier 

 Plain extensively for saltwater fishing and for hunting, 

 particularly for waterfowl. It is known from the Fish 

 and Wildhfe Study (U.S. Army Engineers unpublished) 

 telephone survey that 70% of the saltwater fishermen 

 in the coastal parishes travel less than 80 km (50 mi) 

 to fish, and that 84% of waterfowl hunters hunt with- 

 in 80 km (50 mi) of their homes. Therefore, to esti- 

 mate the present demand for sport hunting and fish- 

 ing within the Chenier Plain, the basin population was 

 augmented by the population of the parishes (counties) 

 immediately adjacent on the north. In the case of East 

 Bay Basin, the applicable population was arbitrarily 

 placed at 250,000, about one-fifth the population of 

 tlie adjacent Galveston County area. [This figure may 

 be somewhat high since Heffeman et al. (1977) report 

 from a creel census of the whole Galveston Bay, a 



total fishing effort of 909,000 man-days/yr. Using 

 their estimate of 16.2 man-days/fishennen/yr, this is 

 the equivalent of 56,000 fishennen. If 20% of the 

 population fishes (table 3.28), the East Bay Basin area 

 is only drawing from a population of about 280,000.] 

 These population estimates should be reasonable for 

 waterfowl hunting and saltwater angling for which 

 the coastal areas must be used; the estimates may be 

 less satisfactory for fresliwater fishing and for small 

 and big game hunting, since appropriate habitat exists 

 north as well as south of the population centers. 



Table 3.29 shows hunting and fishing license sales 

 in the three-parish area of southwestern Louisiana for 

 1967 through 1975. These sales represent about 12.5% 

 of the State total of resident fishing licenses, 7% of 

 the resident hunting licenses, and 4.4% of the big game 

 licenses. The influx of hunters to the Chenier Plain is 

 shown by the large number of nonresident licenses 

 issued (26% of the State total). 



Table 3.28 summarizes estimates of participation 

 rates for sport fishing and hunting. The best surveys 

 for Louisiana were the 1974 State Comprehensive 

 Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) Survey (Louisiana 

 State Parks and Recreation Commission 1974) and the 

 Fish and Wildlife Study (U.S. Army Engineers unpub- 

 lished). The latter agrees reasonably well with the 1970 

 national survey U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1972) 

 in estimating that 20 to 27% of the Louisiana popula- 

 tion engages in sport fishing, although the percentage 

 is much lower for urban residents. The percent of li- 

 cense sales to the total population, when adjusted for 

 hunters and fishermen younger than 16 and older than 

 59 years, coincides with a telephone survey conducted 

 by SCORP. These survey estimates for all categories, 

 of hunters and fishermen are considerably higher than 

 those reported in the Fish and Wildlife Study. The 

 more conservative figures from the latter study were 

 used in this report because the design of the survey 

 and the statistical analysis of the results were consid- 

 ered the best available, even though the survey was 

 conducted in 1968. 



47 



