Louisiana gator farmers may see return quota cut by half

NEW ORLEANS — Once-endangered alligators are thriving in the wild, so Louisiana authorities are proposing a deep cut in the percentage that farmers must return to marshes where their eggs were laid.

“Over the past 50 years, alligator nest surveys have increased from an estimate of less than 10,000 in the 1970s and 1980s to well over 60,000 nests in recent years,” the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission said in a notice last week. “This increase in nesting has produced a population that can now be sustained with a much lower farm return rate.”

The commission is taking comments until Jan. 4 on a proposal to cut that rate from 10% to 5%.

The reptiles don’t breed well in captivity, so farmers are allowed to collect eggs from nests as long as they return a percentage to the same area as youngsters big enough to foil predators other than people and much bigger alligators.

Alligator hides are made into luxury leather. The meat is used in sausages; companies also sell roasts, steaks, ribs, nuggets, jerky and even whole skinned alligators.

About 1.2 million have been returned since alligator farming was approved in 1986, said Jeb Linscombe, head of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ alligator program.

The return percentage was first set at 17%, based on estimates that about 83% die in the egg or before they’re 4 feet long. A wild-hatched gator that size would be about 4 years old, but readily available food lets farmed alligators grow much faster.

The hatchlings are about 8.5 inches long and weigh only 2 ounces. That makes them easy prey for bigger gators, wading birds, otters and fish.

Uncontrolled hunting nearly wiped out American alligators before Louisiana barred all hunting in 1962. Alligator mississippiensis was among the first species federally listed as endangered in 1967, after Congress passed the precursor to the Endangered Species Act.

“The primary reason the species recovered is ... elimination of the black market,” Linscombe said.

Louisiana allowed small, highly regulated hunts in 1972 and 1973, opening a statewide season in 1981. Two years later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that the species had recovered over most of its range, and it was “delisted” entirely in 1987.