Louisiana considers opening recreational alligator hunting season

• Louisiana lawmakers are considering a bill to create a recreational alligator hunting season.
• The proposed season would be open to 5,000 lottery-selected hunters annually, with a two-gator limit.
• Louisiana’s wild alligator population has grown to over 2 million, a significant conservation success.
• Recreational hunters would be limited to using a hook and line from land.

Louisiana may expand its wild alligator harvesting opportunities to recreational hunters if the Legislature passes a bill that secured unanimous approval in a committee hearing March 11.

Franklin state Sen. Robert Allain’s Senate Bill 244 would authorize the Louisiana Wildlife Commission to create a recreational season that would be open to 5,000 hunters annually, each with a two-gator limit.

The state already has a commercial hunting season for alligators, which is chronicled in the popular “Swamp People” TV reality series.

“We think the time is right,” Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Tyler Bosworth testified during the Senate Natural Resources Committee hearing. “We want to provide a recreational opportunity for the common folk of Louisiana.”

Louisiana’s alligator population has exploded in the past 50 years from fewer than 100,000 to more than 3 million today. Of those, about 2 million are wild with another 1 million farmed.

That’s at least twice the population in Florida, the state with the second most number of alligators.

And their Louisiana numbers have grown throughout the state where they can be commonly spotted from Lake Martin in Breaux Bridge to Caddo and Cross lakes in Shreveport to Caldwell Parish in northeastern Louisiana.

“This is a conservation success story on the highest level,” LDWF general counsel Garrett Cole said during the hearing. “This would create a true recreational opportunity outside our commercial season.”

Garrett said hunters would compete for hunting tags through a lottery will statewide opportunities. Recreational hunters would be limited to hook and line harvesting from land. No gators could be taken by boat as commercial hunters are allowed to do.

If approved, the first season could take place beginning Oct. 1.

Louisiana gator, frog delicacies: In Louisiana, frogs are delicacy on par with alligators, crawfish: What do they taste like?

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.