If you’ve never been fishing off of Louisiana’s coast, then you likely haven’t seen all of the pogie boats out harvesting. For some fishermen, it’s not only a regular occurrence, but it’s a sad practice that they have to witness over, and over, and over. Doug Olander of Sport Fishing Magazine covers why these accounts are growing, and why they’re happening.

Menhaden Seiners Killing Louisiana Red Drum

State allows rampant destructive pogy reduction fishery.

Disgusted, I watched the brief video on my monitor.

“This is the reality,” says the narrator, Capt. Eric Newman, a top guide out of Venice, Louisiana, with the outrage evident in his voice. “This is what happens when pogy boats come around.”

The camera zooms in to the white belly of a floating redfish.

“Bull red, dead. There’s another out there,” Newman says. The camera sweeps, zooms in. “Another one out there, dead.” The camera moves, zooms in. “Another one out there.” Again the camera zooms in.

“Dead redfish all around us.” The video zooms out to reveal bloated white bellies bobbing at the surface. This is just off a beach in the Mississippi River Delta. “That’s our broodstock,” Newman adds, shaking his head.

He makes clear that this is no isolated phenomenon, but rather a regular event. “It’s because of those guys, over there,” he adds as the camera pans to a big menhaden factory-reduction vessel pushing into the shallows, black smoke pouring from its stacks.