House panel advances bill barring slot limits on Coosa River without documented restocking attempts

The Ports, Waterways & Intermodal Transit Committee voted to give House Bill 143 a favorable report after hearing testimony and debate over proposed slot limits on the Coosa River chain.

Representative Robbins, sponsor of HB 143, told the committee the bill would prevent the Department of Conservation from enforcing a slot limit in a given reservoir unless the department first attempted and documented restocking for that specific waterbody and shown the effort had failed. Robbins said the legislation responds to what he described as limited science that extrapolated from a single Auburn University study of Neely Henry Lake and to economic concerns raised by local governments and tournament organizers.

The bill matters because it ties any slot-limit regulation to demonstrable, reservoir-specific restocking efforts before the department can restrict fish length or bag limits. Robbins and other supporters said municipalities along the Coosa chain have passed or are preparing resolutions opposing slot limits and warned that uncertainty about possible rules is already harming local investments and upcoming tournaments.

Commissioner Blankenship of the Department of Conservation told the committee the agency has been collecting data and public comment and has contracted Auburn University to study tournament-related mortality. Blankenship said the department has “an ethical, moral, and statutory responsibility ... to balance the protection, conservation of the resource, and the economic side.” He described the regulatory timeline the agency follows through its Conservation Advisory Board and the Administrative Procedures Act, and said the advisory board’s first meeting on the issue is scheduled in March with a follow-up in May.

Members pressed sponsors and agency staff on several technical points. Representative Simpson voiced concern about the bill’s reference to “fishing tournament,” saying the phrase could be overly broad; Robbins said the intent was to target slot limits as they relate to tournaments but that he would accept amending language if the committee preferred a clearer wording. Representative Liscoll and others asked about restocking scale; committee members and the commissioner said the Department has placed roughly 3,100,000 bass in the Coosa chain in recent years but that the observed decline is at the upper end of the size distribution rather than among juveniles. Blankenship also told members the department is investing about $30,000,000 in boating access statewide, including ramps on the Coosa system.

Robbins and other witnesses described economic figures the committee packet cited for tournament-related spending on individual reservoirs (figures from a 2020 data set cited in the meeting): Logan Martin Lake $608,000; Neely Henry Lake $493,000; Weiss $405,000; Lake Jordan $424,000; Lay Lake $621,000. Robbins said one professional tournament slated for Logan Martin could generate more than $1,000,000 in local economic activity, and that pending uncertainty about rules had organizers temporarily “in a holding pattern.”

After debate the committee approved a motion to give HB 143 a favorable report. Representative Lipscomb moved the motion and Representative Marcus seconded. The roll call recorded the following votes: Representative Brown — Aye; Representative Lipscomb — Aye; Representative Clark — No; Representative Collins — Aye; Representative Gibbons — Aye; Representative Hassell — Aye; Representative Hulsey — Aye; Representative Kiel — Aye; Representative Kirkland — Aye; Representative Lomax — Aye; Representative Marcus — Aye; Representative Simpson — Aye. The committee chair announced the bill received a favorable report and will proceed in the legislative process.

The committee exchange left open several technical and procedural questions: the Conservation Advisory Board’s March and May meetings could produce proposed agency rules following the Administrative Procedures Act; HB 143 would change the statutory condition under which the department could apply slot limits in the Coosa chain; and sponsors indicated they would consider narrower language if members want the exemption to apply only to defined, organized tournaments rather than any self-declared event.

HB 143 will move on in the legislature with the committee’s favorable report; no final floor action or governor’s signature was recorded at this meeting.