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News: 2004

Nutria Incentive Program Ends With 332,596 Harvested
Posted: 4/15/04

The 2003-04 harvest under the Coastwide Nutria Control Program concluded on March 31, 2004. Three hundred forty-six participants harvested a total of 332,596 nutria. This year's harvest was an increase of 24,436 over last year's harvest of 308,160. Nutria are invasive species that devour coastal marsh grasses, causing erosion and eventual marsh disintegration. The program is conducted by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and funded by the Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act.

The harvest began on the first day of trapping season, November 20, 2003. The program’s goal was to reduce or eliminate damage to Louisiana's wetlands caused by nutria by increasing the annual harvest up to 400,000 animals. In order to increase the harvest, the program distributed $4 for each nutria tail brought by official participants to official collection locations along Louisiana's coast.

The program area was bounded on the north by Interstate 10 from the Texas line to Baton Rouge, Interstate 12 from Baton Rouge to Slidell, and Interstate 10 from Slidell to the Mississippi line.

Information was collected from each participant in order to determine the method of take, carcass use, and harvest date and location. The information on the harvest location was refined to each participant's lease this year to show more precise locations of nutria harvest in order to track accomplishments towards the goal.

Similar to last year, the majority of nutria were harvested in the southeastern portion of the state, which also has the most wetland damage caused by nutria. However, specific locations of high take within the southeastern portion were different from last year. This year, the largest harvest (86,720 nutria) occurred in Plaquemines Parish, and the second largest harvest occurred in Terrebonne Parish (72,846 nutria). Significant harvests also occurred in Lafourche (51,736 nutria), Jefferson (24,896 nutria) and St. Bernard (13,344 nutria) parishes.

LDWF will assess the amount and severity of the nutria damage for 2004 during aerial surveys to be conducted in April and May. A final report on the 2003-04 incentive program and aerial surveys will be available in July at the Web site, http://www.nutria.com.

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