Poached eggs: Two men cited for gator egg possession

Alligator eggs may look like something fit for the breakfast table before they hatch into what will become huge, prehistoric-looking beasts, but harvesting the valuable ova became a costly venture for two Louisianans on Tuesday.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Enforcement Division agents cited Paul A. Canik, 47, of Grand Chenier and Christopher M. Trahan, 24, of Lake Charles for illegally possessing 523 gator eggs, along with breaking the rules and regulations on the Rockefeller State Wildlife Refuge by running an airboat through it.

“We aren’t sure how many of the eggs were harvested illegally, but in a case like this, all of the eggs are confiscated,” LDWF spokesman Gabe Griffin told The Times. “It’s never easy for agents to make a case like this because they just about have to catch them in the act.”

Gator egg harvesting is big business in Louisiana with eggs selling for approximately $20 apiece. The confiscated eggs were valued at $10,640 by the LDWF.

“The quota for the amount of alligator eggs that can be taken from an area is based off the nest entities which are counted by our biologists,” Griffin said. “Basically, however many nests are on an area dictates roughly how many eggs you can take. Furthermore, that nest count also helps decide the number of (alligator) tags that will be issued to an area.”

Louisiana gator egg harvesters collected an estimated half-million eggs last year with all the eggs sold to alligator farmers. Farmers are required to return 12 percent of their baby gators to the marsh as close as possible from where they were removed from, Griffin said.

“The gator will be 48 inches when they are released back to the area they were taken from so they are putting a decent sized gator back on the property since the survival rate is much higher,” continued Griffin.

In Tuesday’s incident, agents were able to track the movements of the airboat used by the men to procure the eggs. Canik had a valid Louisiana Egg Collector Tag, but agents determined at least some of his eggs were removed from an unapproved area. Egg hunters must secure hunting rights from landowners to harvest their eggs.

The LDWF sold the eggs at their market value. The two men also face a fine of up to $900 and as much as 120 days in jail if convicted. The 18-foot aluminum boat and 14-foot airboat owned by Canik and Trahan were seized following their citation.

“If they are found innocent then they would receive the money the eggs would have brought, so we have to go ahead and sell them to farmers,” he said. “They couldn’t just sit in a closet as evidence for three months. Whenever we can, we return confiscated wildlife to its habitat, but that isn’t possible with alligator eggs.”

Griffin said the harvest of eggs in Louisiana is a remarkable thing after alligators were endangered in the state in the 1960s.

“Alligators went from next to none and in deep decline to a job producing industry for our state,” Griffin said. “It wasn’t until 2010 that California started allowing Louisiana alligator hides to be sold in the state. Before then, it was a big no-no.”

The egg harvesting season is a relatively short period during the summer that ends not long before the 30-day gator harvesting season opens on the last Wednesday in August (East Zone) or first Wednesday in September (West Zone).

Louisiana has more than 2,000 licensed alligator hunters harvesting as many as 35,000 wild gators annually. The meat and hide taken in the hunts generate an estimated $57 million each year.

Egg hunters must apply for a permit from the state and can risk life and limb removing the eggs from angry mothers.

“They often use two boats, including an airboat to get to a nest in the marsh, along with an aluminum boat of some sort,” Griffin said.

Agents involved in this case were Sgt. David Sanford, senior agents Derek Logan, Jason Stagg and Anthony Verret.

Twitter: @JimmyWatson6

ALLIGATORS

BY THE NUMBERS

2,000+

the number of

licensed alligator

hunters in Louisiana

35,000

the number of

wild alligators

harvested each year

57 million

the dollar figure attached to the meat and hide produced from the hunts

523

the number of eggs

confiscated from

Paul A. Canik and

Christopher Trahan

10,460

the dollar figure attached to the eggs taken from Canik and Trahan

20

the dollar figure attached to a single alligator egg

900 and 120

the potential fine in

dollars and jail time

(in days), respectively, Canik and Trahan

face if convicted