BATON ROUGE — Louisiana now has its first recreational alligator hunting season after Gov. Jeff Landry signed Act 37 into law.

The bill was authored by Sen. Robert Allain III, a Republican from Franklin, and is supported by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. It establishes a recreational alligator harvest program for Louisiana residents.

"We have an estimated three million alligators in Louisiana right now," said Allain. "I'm proud to have helped expand recreational hunting opportunities here in our Sportsman's Paradise. We're offering a new way to address nuisance or overabundant alligators while still maintaining our important commercial alligator industry and controlled harvest limits. This is the first recreational, and I've been a commercial alligator hunter for about 20 years now, but a lot of excitement on the recreational side," Allain said.

According to Allain, the recreational harvest season is expected to last from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31.

The law gives the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission authority to set a recreational alligator-hunting season, along with harvest quotas and tag allotments by area. The Commission can also extend, curtail, or prohibit recreational take of alligators in an area when necessary.

Louisiana residents who want to participate must have a basic hunting license, an alligator hunting license, and recreational harvest tags from LDWF. Those tags will be distinguishable from commercial tags.

10,000 Tags will be given out.

'"It'll be a lottery-style system similar to the black bear. You'll have 5,000 lottery winners each getting two tags, and from there, they'll go identify what piece of property that they can go hunt from and go harvest their two alligators," Allain said.

The recreational season will open later than the commercial season, which typically starts around August/September, to avoid conflicts. The legal harvest method is hook and line, and recreational hides, meat, or any parts cannot enter commercial markets.

"Right now to commercially hunt, you have to own a certain amount of land, a certain amount of water in alligator habitat," Allain said. What makes this different is that Wildlife and Fisheries has found there are eight different regions that they've identified, properties that you could go to if you didn't have private land. You could certainly get landowner permission, but they have also identified certain areas on wildlife management areas, state lands, to expand this opportunity as well."

Hunters must have permission from the landowner or use public lands identified by LDWF, similar to deer hunting requirements. Recreational alligator hunters are also required to remain on the property on which they are authorized to hunt.

"So you got to be tied off to land, or you can snag it from land with a grapple," Allain said.

WBRZ spoke with two commercial alligator hunters, Kent Ewing and Travis Jewell, with Louisiana Gator Hunts, who say they're a little concerned about this new season.

"It's definitely not going to help us, but I understand the state wanting to do it, wanting to catch more alligators. I wish they could've done something to maybe promote the market a little more on the commercial side of it. It's hard to get rid of the alligators. This past season, we had two weeks where our local guys quit buying them. No market for them," Ewing said.

Jewell and Ewing told WBRZ that there's not as much money in the commercial alligator hunting industry anymore.

"There used to be. There used to be," Jewell said. "What do you think's causing it? WBRZ asked. I think between the alligator farms and everything else, the market is just flooded. The hides are basically worth nothing," Ewing said.

Ewing and Jewell say they tag about 150-200 gators per commercial season.

As for what's next, wildlife and fisheries will collect public feedback, submit a final report to the state, and publish the new rules to launch the lottery application process this summer.