Louisiana Sportsmans Coalition

[Reel Screamers]

We just had a long meeting on this at the Capitol. The fact is that 49 States and the Federal Government says that ebbing and flowing waters that are an arm of the sea and are open to public navigation as long as they are susceptible of supporting commerce. That is a very broad definition, by simply leasing the waterway it is conducting commerce. This argument has been going on for several years in the Atchafalaya Spillway with the crawfishermen and they have won all of their cases. One of those cases involved a previously landlocked pond that was private but the owner dug a canal that tapped the public resource and the pond became part of the public waterway.

Rosa Parks used to have to sit at the back of the bus but she does not anymore.

The oil companies and the land owners have dug canals through our marsh that accelerated erosion, changed the flow of natural waterways and have failed to keep them up, Lets face it, its expensive. As part of the meeting it was acknowledged that the State is charged with coming in and claiming these water bottoms as a public thing but they have not been doing it because they do not have the funds to do it or to fight the legal challenges that follow, even though they end up being affirmed more often than not. But remember the Rosa Parks analogy. The legislature last year passed an oyster lease law that changed the way oyster leases were handled. Shortly afterwards in several areas of the State these "landowners" began getting very aggressive about claiming waterways as belonging to them. These two actions along with the Billions that are about to be spent in our marsh are now pushing the issue. Change is coming and after the meeting that was had yesterday, it ain't going to be pretty and compromise does not look good, so like the other 49 States it looks like it will be all or nothing.

I understand the landowners argument that it has been this way for years but every now and then the pendulum swings too far one way and it has to be reset, a few bad apples are forcing the issue and there will be collateral damage.