The tension between the U.S. energy industry and the Gulf Coast’s natural resources is perhaps the dominant narrative of life in the region, an uneasy equilibrium that resurfaced recently when two liquefied natural gas providers helped underwrite a substantial redfish restocking operation.
Earlier this month, according to the nonprofit news organization the Louisiana Illuminator, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries released more than 150,000 hatchery-raised young redfish (known as fingerlings) in coastal areas near Grand Isle, Lake Calcasieu and New Orleans.
Cameron LNG, which operates an export terminal on the Calcasieu Ship Channel, and its controlling partner, Sempra Infrastructure, provided some funds for the release, the Illuminator reported.
But no good deed goes unpunished. Some local fishermen thanked the companies for the gesture, but said that creating more wildlife habitat would be even more helpful. Others believe the energy providers harm the delicate coastal ecosystem and have taken some, including Venture Global, to court, the Illuminator reported.
An angler hauls in a bull redfish during a tournament near Grand Isle, La., in 2019 (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“If they did things like … creating edge habitat, creating reef habitat, it would be really hard as a fishing guide to be mad at them while you’re catching fish off of the stuff they built,” Cameron Parish fishing guide Justin Lyons told the Illuminator.
One thing both sides can apparently agree on is that boosting the state’s redfish population is in everyone’s interest. According to NOLA.com, after catch numbers reached a four-decade low in 2021, Louisiana lawmakers changed the state’s fishing regulations by lowering the daily catch limit from five fish to four, increasing the minimum size by two inches, and requiring that fish over 27 inches be released.
In Texas, the energy industry primarily supports the state’s coastal fisheries through partnerships such as Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Rigs-to-Reefs program, which has created more than 140 artificial reefs out of decommissioned oil and gas platforms since 1990, according to TPWD. Major companies including Marathon, Phillips 66, and Shell also help fund conservation efforts through extensive grants, nonprofit partnerships, and other initiatives.
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This article originally published at LNG companies helped fund a major redfish restocking. Gulf anglers are uneasy..