“Our greatest challenge over the next 20-years is dealing with coastal salinity change in each of our important estuaries that we grow oysters,” said Chris Nelson, vice president of Alabama’s Bon Secour Fisheries and a Gulf Seafood Institute board member. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood New Editor
From Texas to Florida, the number of oysters harvested in the Gulf is at one of the lowest on record. Three years after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, oyster industry experts have no answers on the cause of the steep decline; especially on public grounds relied upon by commercial fishermen.
Oystermen and processors indicate that Gulf oysters are tough to come by. Restaurants, such as Caracol’s in Houston, are selling all they can get. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
Oystermen and processors indicate that Gulf oysters are tough to come by. Various Gulf State fisheries are conducting studies on oyster reproduction and growth, but answers have been elusive.
Scientists are studying the spill’s impact on Gulf oysters. Information is being compiled as part of a restoration plan aimed at bringing the Gulf back to pre-spill conditions; the Natural Resources Damage Assessment Act better know as the Restore Act.
Commercial oystermen from across the Gulf fear they are beginning to see the full extent of the 2010 oil spill damage.
Oysters take approximately three years to reach maturity, so the spill’s damage could just now be affecting the industry. Before the spill oyster landings were in a cyclical lull and currently should be trending upwards; but they’re not.
Louisiana Landings Lagging
According to Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries spokesperson Rene LeBreton, “Reports from industry members indicate that they are landing fewer oysters this season than last.” Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
In Louisiana, reports from industry members indicate fewer oysters are being landed this season than last, consistent with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries recent public seed ground stock assessment of the state’s $300 million industry.
“Areas that once produced abundantly just a few years ago are barren,” said Wilber Collins, owner of Louisiana’s Collins Oyster Company and a member of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force. “I’ve got three boats and only one is working. We just don’t have enough oysters. The demand is unbelievably high, so we are getting a great prices for what we have.”
Collin’s company has been forced to harvest from one spot west of Bayou Lafourche. He hopes there will be enough oysters there to hold him until spring.
“It’s not a decline; it’s zero population,” Steve Voisin, CEO of Motivatit Seafood, whose oyster business has been a part of the Houma area since 1971.“ “I’ve never seen it so low, but remain optimistic because I’ve seen it come back time and time again,” he told HoumaToday.com.
“We sold about one-third of the oysters this year than we did last year, and that was down about one-third from the previous year,” said Al Sunseri owner of New Orleans’s P&J Oyster Company. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
According to Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries spokesperson Rene LeBreton in an interview with HoumaToday.com, “Reports from industry members indicate that they are landing fewer oysters this season than last. This is consistent with the department’s most recent public seed ground stock assessment, which projected sack-size oyster abundance to be slightly lower than last year.”
“We sold about one-third of the oysters this year than we did last year, and that was down about one-third from the previous year,” said Al Sunseri owner of New Orleans’s P&J Oyster Company and a board member of the Gulf Oyster Industry Council (GOIC). “The supply side is seeing trouble across the Gulf.”
According to Sunseri, the lack of sack-sized oysters has caused problems in addition to the supply issue. “Some sellers are mislabeling the quantities being packaged, and adding empty shells and rocks to fill oyster sacks,” he explained. “Up and down the supply chain everyone has become more vigilant against oyster thieves.”
Sunseri said tag sales, which indicate how many oysters are landed in a state, are down 40 percent since the spill.
Supply Problems and Questions
Each year, processors around the Gulf supplement stocks by buying oysters from outside the region. This year, Gulf processors say they’ve had to rely on outside oysters more than ever, especially from the revitalized Chesapeake Bay.
Oyster grounds in the Gulf’s most productive areas are not producing sufficiently. These grounds typically provide a majority of the harvested oysters, but crops killed after the spill has failed to replenish.
“Our greatest challenge over the next 20-years is dealing with coastal salinity change in each of our important estuaries that we grow oysters,” said Chris Nelson, vice president of Alabama’s Bon Secour Fisheries. “Our problems range from each end of the spectrum; we either have too much water or not enough, both of which create a problem in oyster production.”
“Areas that once produced abundantly just a few years ago are barren,” said Wilber Collins, owner of Louisiana’s Collins Oyster Company and a member of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
One of the biggest issues for Collin’s is the need for research why wild reefs are remaining sterile. The lagging production in public beds denies oystermen their primary source of seed as well as commercial production needed to supplement private leases when they are closed or are close to being over-harvested.
“Spats aren’t taking on the wild reefs,” he explained. “The spats (oyster seedlings) are not reproducing on the wild reefs, and currently there is no information available on why they are failing to grow. We desperately need immediate scientific research into why this is happening.”
In Florida the oyster harvest is also been hurt by the lack of fresh water entering the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Suwannee Rivers. Producers speculated changes in the water salinity in harvest grounds caused by the river’s freshwater diversions upstream and drought are responsible.
All About Water Quality
Corky Peret, a noted Gulf oyster industry expert and Gulf Seafood Institute board member, said it all comes down to water quality.
“Salinity is a problem in Louisiana, as well as every Gulf State,” said Louisiana Oyster Task Force president John Tesvich, owner of Ameripure Oyster. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
“Oysters are a very important resource, and oyster are sessile, they can’t move,” said the Mississippi representative to the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council. “They are dependent upon the drainage from land area. They have become very susceptible to an increased discharge and poor water quality as more and more people have moved to the coastal areas, as well as the dredging and widening of ship channels.”
“Salinity is a problem in Louisiana, as well as every Gulf State,” said Louisiana Oyster Task Force president John Tesvich, owner of Ameripure Oyster. “We need to educate legislators that proposed projects will have a major impact on Gulf oyster production. We need to enlist our Congressmen’s support in requiring the Corp of Engineers to investigate affects on shellfish production as part current and future projects.
“If the coastal restoration and sediment diversion project on the east bank of the Mississippi River comes online it will be destructive to the oyster industry in Plaquemines, St. Bernard and Jefferson Parishes,” said Jakov Jurisic, a member of the Oyster Task Force, about a the current proposed sediment diversion project to build needed land in the marshes of the Mississippi delta.
According to Auburn University shellfish expert Bill Walton, current proposed restoration projects could not only damage oyster beds, but could devastate not only the oyster industry, but also other Gulf seafood species.
“It would be ironic if the funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill earmarked to help restore the Gulf Coast, actually were used in such a way that ended up devastating the oyster industry, as well as other seafood fisheries,” he explained. “This could be a sad ending to a very sad story.”
According to Auburn University shellfish expert Bill Walton, “It would be ironic if the funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill earmarked to help restore the Gulf Coast, actually were used in such a way that ended up devastating the oyster industry.” Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
The last year few years have been tough for Gulf oysters. The industry has started an “adapt on the run” attitude in order to survive.
In addition to lack of oyster, more and more consumers want to know what they are eating, and where it comes from. Oystermen from Florida to Texas realize they must give into consumer’s demands.
“I am going revisit the 1970’s, and go back to a branded oyster – Shell Beach Box Choice,” said Louisiana oysterman Brad Robins of Robins Oyster. “I am going to make an effort to become unique, and concentrate on select oysters. There is going to be a time in the near future that Gulf oysters will once again become abundant, and we will need to have a product that can sell itself in order to compete. It is kind of like going back to the future.”
Chris Nelson, a GOIC and GSI board member, said “the lack in supply have pushed prices as high as I ever seen.
The high prices are affecting notable oyster bars, especially in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I have had to raise prices once,” said Tommy Cvitanovich owner of Drago’s, a New Orleans restaurant famous for its charbroiled oysters. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
“I have had to raise prices once,” said Tommy Cvitanovich owner of Drago’s, a New Orleans restaurant famous for its charbroiled oysters. “Earlier we had two months we had a hard time procuring enough oysters; right now if you are willing to pay the price you can get what you need.”
The lull has put pressure on oyster dealers and farmers to stay in business. Sunseri said he has had to put money into the business to keep the doors open on the 138-year old establishment.
“We need oysters and we need them desperately,” he said. “That is going to be the hinge-pin on our survival. If the processors can’t get enough oysters, we are going to go by the wayside. You’ll have oyster farmers trying to sell their wares individually.”
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