U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service | Southeast Region News Release

August 15, 2002

Contact:
Paul Hartfield, 601/965-4900, Ext.125
Connie Light Dickard, 601/321-1121 or 601/941-6395 (cell phone) (Please contact her after August 19)

WHAT:

Public meetings to discuss a proposal to designate critical habitat for the Gulf sturgeon and the associated analysis of potential economic impacts. The Gulf sturgeon, federally listed as an endangered species, inhabits coastal waters from Louisiana through Florida during the spring, summer, and fall. It winters in estuaries, bays, and the Gulf of Mexico.
In Louisiana and Mississippi, Gulf sturgeon critical habitat is proposed for the Pearl and Bogue Chitto Rivers; Lake Pontchartrain (east of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway); Lake Catherine; Little Lake; the Rigolets; Lake Borgne; Pascagoula Bay; Mississippi Sound; and sections of the adjacent state waters within the Gulf of Mexico. Included in Mississippi are the Pascagoula, Leaf, Bowie or Bouie, Big Black Creek, and Chicksawhay Rivers.

WHO:

Staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries will be available to discuss the critical habitat proposal and economic analysis and to answer questions and receive comments from the general public.

WHERE:

August 21: Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium, 115 Beach Boulevard in Biloxi, Mississippi
August 22: Hilton New Orleans Airport, 901 Airline Drive, in Kenner, Louisiana

WHEN:

Both meetings begin with a public information session from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. The formal public hearings begin at 7 p.m. and end at 9 p.m.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries to Hold Public Hearings on Proposed Gulf Sturgeon Critical Habitat and Its Potential Economic Impacts