118 American Fisheries Society 



shall be unlawful for any person found within the boun- 

 daries of Louisiana to have the same in his possession. It 

 is contended by some, and probably rightly so, that tram- 

 mel-nets are less destructive than drag seines to all the 

 life found in our waters, if set in the open sea, or in large 

 lakes. Our experience has been that if trammel-nets 

 were allowed to be brought into the state they were in- 

 variably used in bayous, streams and narrow bays, 

 and set completely across them, thereby taking nearly 

 every fish above a certain size that would be making its 

 way either in or out of said bodies of water. The State 

 of Louisiana has hundreds of miles of such waters, both 

 fresh and salt, and it would certainly be very detrimental 

 to its fisheries resources if trammel-nets could be used in 

 these waters. 



Another admirable feature of our seining laws, pro- 

 hibits the using of any seine over 900 ft. in length, and 

 having not less than a six-inch stretched mesh, for taking 

 any of the common commercial species of fresh water 

 fish. Under this section of the law, no two or more 

 seines may be joined together and used as one seine. 

 The penalty for doing this, is the confiscation of the 

 license and permit under which the owner of the seine 

 is operating, in addition to the usual fine. Seines be- 

 ing operating under our license and permit can only 

 be used in certain permitted waters of the state where, 

 in the opinion of the Commissioner, it can be shown the 

 using of them is not detrimental to its interests. The 

 license and permit under which any seine is being op- 

 erated in certain waters, may be revoked whenever it is 

 shown by fisheries experts that seining therein is detri- 

 mental to the game fish resources of the state. 



Our law as regards hoop-nets is excellent, inasmuch as 

 only plain hoop-nets; that is, those without leaders or 

 wings, may be used in any of the waters of this state. 

 Then again these may not be set in any one of our bay- 

 ous, streams, or lagoons, which is less than forty yards 

 in width at low water mark. 



