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Read. Follow. Verify.Louisiana creates Manchac Wildlife Management Area Sanctuary in Lake Pontchartrain
Last action · March 9, 2026: Read by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.Sponsor: Kimberly Coates
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What This Bill Proposed
Louisiana House Bill 754 creates the Manchac Sanctuary in Lake Pontchartrain, prohibiting the commercial taking of fish, shrimp, and seafood using s, skimmer nets, butterfly nets, seines, or traps within the designated area.
Commercial and recreational fishers operating in Lake Pontchartrain near the Manchac face new gear restrictions and sanctuary boundaries that prohibit specific netting methods.
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Commercial fishers
Commercial fishers are prohibited from using trawls, skimmer nets, butterfly nets, seines, or traps within the newly created sanctuary.
Recreational fishers
Recreational fishers are permitted to use cast nets, drop nets, scoop nets, and standard underwater spearing equipment subject to existing regulations.
Key Facts
- Creates the Manchac Wildlife Management Area Sanctuary for fish, shrimp, and other marine life in Lake Pontchartrain.
- Prohibits the taking of fish, shrimp, and other seafood using trawls, skimmer nets, butterfly nets, seines, or traps within sanctuary waters.
- Allows the use of cast nets, drop nets, scoop nets, and skin diving with standard underwater spearing equipment for sport.
- Authorizes the taking of legal catfish by legal hoop nets or legal slat traps, as well as the use of crab traps.
Show all 6 facts
- Authorizes legal trawls, skimmer nets, and butterfly nets in open seasons within sanctuary areas located south and east of the Interstate 10 bridge.
- Provides that the sanctuary shall be administered by the Fish and Game Section of the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission or its successors.
Frequently Asked Questions
What areas are included in the new Manchac Wildlife Management Area Sanctuary?
Are recreational activities like skin diving permitted in the sanctuary?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · in House committee.
Procedural history
4 actions- Mar 9, 2026HouseIntroducedRead by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.
- Feb 27, 2026HousePrefiled.
- Feb 27, 2026HouseCommitteeUnder the rules, provisionally referred to the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.
- Feb 27, 2026HouseFirst appeared in the Interim Calendar on 2/27/2026.
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Connected Entities
Sources
www.legis.la.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 45)
- Controversy20Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz15Current news / social attention level
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