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Christine Flores, wife of The Daily Review outdoors writer John Flores, pulls in an alligator during the 2016 hunting season in the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area after drawing out of the lottery to hunt the area. The 2018 Louisiana alligator hunting season for the state’s east zone starts Aug. 29, and west season begins Sept. 5. (John Flores photo)

Oversupply of hides puts damper on alligator season

There’s no shortage of alligators as the start of the month-long hunting season kicks off next week.

But an oversupply of hides in the market is causing low alligator prices and fewer hunters to participate in the season, because the demand can’t meet that great supply, said Jeb Linscombe, fur and alligator program manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

“The demand’s still there. It’s just the supply is high of not only alligators, of other crocodilian leather on the market worldwide,” Linscombe said.

Demand for alligator meat is still “fairly solid,” he said.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries divides the month-long wild alligator hunting season into an east and west season that are staggered one week apart. East hunting season starts the last Wednesday in August, which is Aug. 29 this year. West hunting season begins the first Wednesday in September, which falls on Sept. 5 for 2018.

St. Mary Parish has areas in both the east and west zones. East of the Atchafalaya River or east of the East Atchafalaya Basin Levee is in the east zone. West of the Atchafalaya River or west of the East Atchafalaya Basin Levee is in the west, according to the Wildlife and Fisheries website.

Alligator hunter, Sidney “Peanut” Michel of Morgan City, said alligators are plentiful in the region, but prices were extremely low last year. He hunts in the marshes south of Berwick from the Wax Lake Outlet to the mouth of the Atchafalaya River.

Michel doesn’t expect the 2018 season’s prices to be any better.

The prices are so low, mainly due to the lack of demand for alligator hides in the economic downturn. The hides are considered luxury items, Michel said. Some landowners aren’t opening their land to hunters this year due to the lackluster prices, he said.

Alligators are priced by foot for wholesale with a certain price for small, medium and large gators. Those size ranges may be 5- to 6-foot, 6- to 8-foot and over 8 feet, but the exact ranges vary each season, he said.

Last year’s prices per foot were about $5 per foot for small alligators, $8 per foot for medium alligators and $10 per foot for large alligators.

The alligator population is certainly healthy, though.

“If anything, the population’s growing fast,” Michel said.

Michel attributes that growth to the Wildlife and Fisheries’ management of the alligator population by limiting how many alligators are harvested and releasing young alligators from farms into the wild after they hatch.

Michel has close to 200 tags to harvest alligators on private land during the 2018 season as he did last year, too. He sells the whole alligators to Johnny’s Seafood & Bait in Berwick for processing.

Wildlife and Fisheries’ Lottery Alligator Harvest Program also provides more than 300 resident alligator hunters the opportunity to harvest roughly 800 alligators on almost 40 Wildlife Management Areas and public lakes located throughout the state. Lottery applications are available mid- to late May of each year, according to the website.

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