Alligator gar have been around for over 140 million years, co-existing with many species that inhabit Louisiana waters. Unfortunately, in the last 60+ years, Alligator Gar have been seen as a nuisance and a threat to other species of fish. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth, as Alligator Gar are completely native to Louisiana and are extremely important to the ecosystem. Yet many people continue to kill Alligator Gar whenever caught because of the outdated beliefs stated before. My petition is for Alligator Gar to become a gamefish in Louisiana and for there to be a size limit and limit of the amount of gar allowed to be kept. Many very large Alligator Gar are often killed in Louisiana due to hate for the fish as well as bow "fishing" (shooting fish with a bow and arrow, leaving it no chance of survival, and often throwing the dead fish away), plus juglining and “gar rodeos” (taking of as many of the largest gar possible, which are mostly breeder fish). Bow fishing charters take large amounts of alligator gar daily, which is detrimental to the species due to their slow maturity, vulnerable spawning patterns, and long life span. These fish are not an infinite resource as we’ve seen through them being extirpated from a large portion of their native range. These fish are often over 50 years old when they are shot and killed, and were breeder fish. Not to mention, alligator gar keep “gamefish” populations healthy, as they evolved together. If this petition can be signed, acknowledged, and everyone can learn how important these fish are, we might be able to allow these fish to roam and grow like they once did. But change has to happen or else we will end up just like Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, etc., remembering them as a thing of the past. Luckily we have a lot of marsh for the gar to spawn, but due to the levees we’ve built, the intrusive salt water has eroded over 2000 square miles of our marsh since 1930, also all spawning grounds for gar. After Texas made Alligator Gar a gamefish, LOUISIANA IS THE ONLY STATE WITHOUT LIMITS ON ALLIGATOR GAR, and Bow "fisherman" charters are using that to their advantage, and are shooting these fish in masses through charter services just for some money. Juglining is also an ~extremely~ destructive method. It involves taking bottles such as milk jugs or Clorox bottles, tying line and bait to them, and throwing out 50-100 "Garfish Jugs" at once, leaving them overnight, then taking all the gar the next day. It wipes out very large populations of fish all at once. And there are zero regulations on juglining. Many gar rodeos have hundreds of boats participate yearly; all being granted 50+ jugs per boat. That is an absurd amount of very old fish being taken at once. If technology is increasing, boats are getting faster, and fishing methods are becoming more advanced, there needs to be regulations on the taking of alligator gar. People are not shooting fish with handmade arrows from the bank and eating them sustainably like our ancestors. They are killing them in mass for sport with the aid of modern technology, something these fish never encountered till recently. These fish have been around for millions of years, yet the invasive nature of passive fishing methods like juglining, and bowfishing from airboats with 50,000+ lumens of spotlights are extremely new in the grand scheme of things, and absolutely have damaged the populations. People say "gar have been around since the dinosaurs, they aren't going anywhere", yet how many of those years did boats covered in spotlights going over 50mph through marsh filled with dozens of bowfishing rigs exist? Same premise with the juglines? Again, we are the only state that allows this. My goal is to have enough people sign this petition to bring it forward to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and have regulations on the harvesting of Alligator Gar. There are still many very outdated beliefs about this fish that are the driving factor behind its decimation, as well as the fishes inability to keep up with our technology (airboats, bowfishing rigs, spotlights, juglines, etc) so we are going to have to speak up to help this species. One day in the near future these fish might be a fish of the past, if we wait too long to put protections in place.