Oyster harvesters tong oysters on a sub-Tide reef. Photo: Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
Extended drought conditions in Texas and Florida watersheds, increasing salt water intrusion into key oyster producing estuaries, cumulative damage from recent hurricanes and floods as well as the consequences of the Deepwater Horizon spill on marine resources have combined to create a unique opportunity to rethink how Gulf of Mexico oyster habitat is created and restored.
The Gulf Oyster Hatchery Initiative has proposed the use of hatchery produced oyster seed to restore Gulf of Mexico oyster reefs, as well as create new habitat resulting in a clean Gulf. The proposed mega-hatchery is a joint effort of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, the Gulf Oyster Industry Council and the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, and has received the support of the Gulf Seafood Institute.
For more than three decades oyster mega-hatchery technology has been used worldwide, increasing production and stabilizing both the U.S. East and West Coast regional oyster industries, keeping them from complete collapse.
A critical step is needed to increase natural oyster production in the Gulf of Mexico region,” said LaDon Swann, the director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. “By constructing and operating two new large-scale oyster mega-hatcheries located along the Gulf Coast, needed larvae and seed will be provided to each Gulf state to enhance existing oyster reefs, and create new oyster reefs to protect shorelines and establish new oyster sanctuaries.”
Improved Restoration Programs
Oyster reef restoration and enhancement projects have focused on replacing or supplementing cultch material to catch natural spat (shown in hand) set that enhances the productivity of the reef. Photo Jim Gossen/GSI
Current oyster restoration programs need to be improved. To date, the Gulf of Mexico oyster fisheries have relied on Mother Nature to provide natural sets. Oyster reef restoration and enhancement projects have focused on replacing or supplementing cultch material to catch this natural spat set that enhances the productivity of the reef.
Despite considerable costly efforts by both state organizations and non-governmental organizations, oyster production from natural reefs has varied wildly over the last five years in all of the Gulf States, from Florida to Texas, causing nearly catastrophic economic, social and environmental consequences to the its oyster community.
There is an urgent need to reduce risk to Gulf oyster reefs by using new ways to manage those reefs. The proposed project implements parts of the regional oyster management plan consistent with recommendations from the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission’s “The Oyster Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico United States: A Regional Management Plan”.
“As the industry grows we must adapt to the challenges we face,” said GSI “founding member” Raz Halili of Prestige Oysters, an oyster harvester in Galveston Bay. “During the past few years we have seen our precious oyster beds devastated by both man and mother nature. The mega-hatcheries are an innovative technique to replenish oyster reefs which I believe is a step in right direction towards a revival of a thriving gulf coast.”
Facing both natural and manmade challenges, it is less and less clear whether reliance on natural set is a sustainable long-term approach. Using large hatcheries to produce oyster larvae will help increase production across the Gulf, restore oyster reefs, provide ecosystem services and increase the region’s resilience to both challenges.
Feasible Project
“This project is feasible,” said Chris Nelson of the Gulf Oyster Industry Council and a board member of GSI. “The Chesapeake Bay region, Washington State and multiple countries on the Pacific Rim are producing significant volumes of oysters using similar techniques to those proposed here; gaining important environmental benefits and supporting the communities that depend on those oysters.”
Tomas Juan (left) and T.J. Ward weigh oysters harvested from Florida’s Apalachacola Bay. The Bay is struggling to stay open to harvesting. Photo: Jeff Klinkenberg/Tampa Bay Times
According to Nelson, the technology is proven and similar hatcheries are producing nearly 50 billion eyed larvae per year in Washington State alone.
The total budget for the 10-year project is $132 million. It includes $52 million for hatchery construction and operation, $41 million for construction of larvae setting facilities, $30 million for seeded cultch deployment and $9 million for reef monitoring. More than 83 billion juvenile oysters will be added to up to 166,000 acres of the Gulf’s public oyster beds and reefs.
Siting and construction of the first hatchery and remote setting facilities will be accomplished within 18 months of approval. Support for larval production and planting will be monitored for 10 years.
“We are in a rebuilding phase and need to take some of the pressure off of wild stocks,” James Beard award winning author Paul Greenberg told Gulf Seafood News. “ I think the proposed Gulf mega-hatchery is a good idea.”
“We are in a rebuilding phase and need to take some of the pressure off of wild stocks,” James Beard award winning author Paul Greenberg told Gulf Seafood News. “ I think the proposed Gulf mega-hatchery is a good idea.”
He cites a similar situation on the east coast with the Connecticut based New England Shellfish Cooperative. “It has been a major engine for reseeding oyster farms all up and down the east coast. Natural reproduction is great, but at some point it doesn’t hurt to give Mother Nature a boost. The spat is going to help to reseed some of these wild reefs,” he explained.
In addition to potential job creation and economic benefits by the enhancement of oyster populations, the project will provide critical ecosystem services through improved water quality, increased biodiversity, creation of more diverse habitat and cultural services provided by productive oyster reefs.
280 Billion Oyster Eggs
“Beginning in year five the project’s single year’s harvest could be worth up to $6.8 million to harvesters, which is comparable to the value of the ecosystem services provided by the restoration and stock enhancement,” said Gulf Oyster Industry Council’s Al Sunseri, owner of P&J Oyster Company in New Orleans. “There will be an annual production of 280 billion fertilized oyster eggs, more than 2.86 trillion over the 10-year period.”
Shuckers at New Orleans P&J Oyster Company , the oldest continuing operating oyster company in America, shuck a continuing dwindling supply of Gulf oysters. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
Sunseri hopes in the near future that a host of other Gulf State resource agencies, especially state Sea Grant programs, become involved in the project.
Existing oyster hatchery capacity will be used while a rigorous six-month site assessment for a mega- hatchery is conducted. The mega-hatchery will have the ability to maintain the genetic purity of oysters from different estuaries around the region. Remote setting facilities that are capable of producing 10 billion or more spat on cultch yearly will be built in each state. A rigorous university-based success rate monitoring programing will be established in each state to guide state-specific adaptive management.
A second mega-hatchery would later be established to increase the resilience of the restoration program and support the long-term comprehensive regional strategic plan for the oyster industry.
The mega-hatchery concept has received support outside of the industry; Chef Tenney Flynn of GW Fins in New Orleans said that he fully supported such a concept.
“The more oysters the better, it’s a great idea,” said the award winning chef and avid scuba diver. “Anywhere oysters get established they clean the water, they can clean up almost anything. They also provide a reef structure for other aquatic life.”
The ten-year project will eventually affect the more than 24,070 acres, with 7,470 acres of public reefs and 16,600 acres of non-harvestable oyster sanctuaries. More than a half billion oysters are projected for harvest producing a dockside vale of approximately $68 million at a price of $30 per sack. In addition more than three million pounds of nitrogen will be removed from the Gulf and habitat created for more than 85 million pounds of fish for recreational and commercial fish harvests.
“We are assuming a very, very low survival to market size,” said Bill Walton, an associate professor at Auburn University Shellfish Lab. “We hope we can beat that but we want to promise something we can deliver.” “Even with low survival rates we expect to be able to product 8.3 billion spat on cultch per year for restoration purposes”
Lower oyster production and decreasing spat set is causing the Gulf Coast oyster industry to struggle for profitability and meet growing demands. “For several decades oyster populations have been in decline. We cannot afford to wait to make changes as oystermen turn to other ways of making a living. Every year we wait reduces the oyster industry. I haven’t seen this many oyster bars or a bigger demand for quality half shell oysters in my lifetime but if our production continues to decrease so will our markets,” said GSI’s Jim Gossen, chairman of Sysco Louisiana Seafood.
Gossen firmly believes more attention needs to be paid to disappearing reefs and habitats and what can be done to supplementing natural production through the use of mega-hatcheries.
In response to the Gulf Oyster Hatchery Initiative’s Oyster Reef Restoration Project:
I am so glad you are embarking on this program which has many benefits for the oystermen, the Gulf and the economy of the Gulf Coast. It also benefits us, who live far away but love that area because we’ve lived and played at the Gulf.
I am disgusted with the abundance of seafood from China, Thailand, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asia countries, whose regulations are beyond questionable. I refuse to buy any seafood that is not caught and processed by the USA.
But that does present a problem, because Gulf Coast seafood is difficult to find in Northern Indiana. Of supermarkets like WalMart, Meijers, Marsh, Martin’s and Krogers, only Krogers stocks USA seafood, including Gulf Coast shrimp and oysters. I have asked the others to please stock USA seafood, but unfortunately, corporations are all too often only thinking about price, not quality. Having lived in Gulf Shores/Orange Beach for almost a decade, I know what quality seafood is!
Sara McKeefer
11772 N 450 E
Syracuse IN 46567
574.457.5814
A special thank you for the excellent article you wrote, Mr. Lallo. As a retired journalist, I especially appreciate the depth of your research and the interviews with knowledgeable people. The information was presented in a clear and interesting manner.
I visited Dulac, La, after Rita and saw first hand how devastating Katrina and Rita were on the seafood industry. I have to admit that after meeting many of the hard-working shrimpers and oystermen of that area, it is extremely disheartening to see the glut of SE Asia seafood filling the freezer cases of supermarkets. OK, I’ll stop venting now and let you get back to work! Thanks again!
Sara