Tag: oysters
Before Hurricane Ida, Montegut oysterman Mark Naquin admits the last couple of year’s production on his leases was slow. He had hope 2021 would be better. Recent plantings showed baby oysters everywhere. Then the storm undid his hard work leaving his business in shambles.
An average consumer in the U.S. spends a $1.50 to eat approximately a third of a pound of oysters a year according to a calculation in a recently released video by Dr. Ben Posadas, an associate extension research professor at Mississippi State University. With no available official estimates on oyster per capita consumption, Dr. Posada arrived at his estimate by dividing total oyster supply or expenditures by the current population.
For Louisiana restaurants, certain seafood costs have risen so much that once-standard fares, such as oyster sandwiches and pastas, are no longer served.
Grand Isle aquaculture oysterman Scott Mauer can attest that even the best-laid plans to avoid disaster often go astray. As Hurricane Ida approached Louisiana, his seed-oyster business partner Steve Pollock and him evacuated more than 10-million larva to Texas A&M University, and stored another 20-million at the LSU Sea Grant hatchery on the island. Ida managed to take out those at the hatchery and those in Texas died from unknown causes.
After protest by oystermen and the public, the Texas Parks and Wildlife has delayed a vote on the proposed closure of three oyster bays for harvesting. The three bays are Carlos Bay, Mesquite Bay and Ayres Bay near Rockport. State biologists had warned harvesting in those areas has increased over the past decade and reefs have shown a low abundance of oysters relative to neighboring bays.
Permanent and temporary closures of oyster harvesting areas by the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife (TDPW) have brought protests by oyster fishermen and contributing to the shortage of Gulf oysters, as well as high prices. The department said the move was due to a variety of environmental concerns.
For more than six hours fifth-generation Houma oysterman Jacob David Hulse, his girlfriend Lindsey Willis and his dog Change huddled in an the oyster shop of friend Kenneth (Keno) Templet struggling to keep the walls and roof from caving as the more than 140-mph winds of Hurricane Ida continuously battered away at the structure. When the winds started to subside, Hulse thought he had gone through the worse of it. Like many Louisiana fishermen are finding out, his troubles were only beginning after the storm was finished.
Louisiana oysterman Jakov Jurisic is no stranger to adversity. The Gulf oyster industry, along with other Gulf seafood, is in a historic nosedive never before seen. The perfect storm of too much water, a national pandemic and the closure of restaurant after restaurant have forced those in the industry to reexamine the path forward.
For Louisiana oysterman Tony Tesvich the last few years have been all about water, water, and more water. Too much, too little, poor quality, high salinity, low salinity, nitrogen, phosphates and hypoxia; over the past two years his oysters have been flooded with a host of water issues with the latest being the future plans of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CRPA).
Can you imagine no oyster bars crowded with patrons eyeing shuckers opening one perfect Gulf oyster after another? No music crowds pressed shoulder to shoulder in Austin venues. No crowded Bourbon Street restaurants overflowing with locals and tourists. There is a new norm coming to the Gulf and the country, and life will be different.
Hurricanes, droughts, flooding and oil spills, the Louisiana Oyster Task Force had thought they had seen it all. The norvell coronavirus that is sweeping through the state, the nation and the world is just one more obstacle to overcome and according to Task Force chairman Mitch Jurisich there is little doubt they will. Jurisich discusses the importance of Gulf oysters to the environment, culture and heritage of Louisiana.
For Louisiana oysterman Tony Tesvich the last few years have been all about water, water, and more water. Too much, too little, poor quality, high salinity, low salinity, nitrogen, phosphates and hypoxia; over the past two years his oysters have been flooded with a host of water issues and that is why he will be attending the 2020 Fisheries Forward Summit.
Braving freezing temperatures and cold northern winds whipping the Carolina coast, more than 250 members of the oyster aquaculture industry recently gathered for the fourth Oyster South Industry Symposium held in Wilmington to discuss industry issues and research.
In the midst of a Florida field beseeched with palmettos and pines, Two Docks Shellfish is not your typical Gulf aquaculture business. A lawyer, a PhD, a Master and a biologist comprise the brain trust running the successful Bradenton clamming and oyster aquaculture operation.
GULF SEAFOOD FOUNDATION – Sitting in his Kemah, TX home on Galveston Bay, Raz Halili was sure the small tropical storm named Harvey hovering off the coast of Texas was of little concern. A week later with his family’s oyster damaged, shrimp boats sunk, fishermen’s homes underwater or destroyed he realized his miscalculations on the impact of Hurricane Harvey.
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