Sea Gristle
09-28-2005, 03:57 PM
State's oyster season opens Saturday
Managers will open most public grounds to offset the Gulf Coast's storm damage
Sep 28, 2005
NEWPORT NEWS -- Fisheries managers will open Virginia's oyster season Saturday on most public grounds to support local shucking houses that have lost their important Gulf of Mexico oyster supply to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
"It is going to be an interesting and hard season for the few processors that survive," Virginia Marine Resources Commission oyster manager Jim Wesson told the commission yesterday.
In years past, the commission has staggered opening dates for the oyster season to ensure a small, but constant, supply of Virginia oysters to the state's shucking industry.
Hurricane Katrina changed that logic because it harmed or destroyed eastern Louisiana oyster grounds that provide about 60 percent of the oysters that Virginia processors shuck.
Wesson originally proposed the simultaneous opening to tide the dozen or so Virginia shucking houses over until Nov. 1 when Texas and western Louisiana oysters typically begin entering the market. But last week those areas were slammed by Hurricane Rita.
Wesson said the extent of the damage to gulf oysters from Rita has not been established, "but a lot of their facilities [that handled gulf oysters] were hit by that 20-foot storm surge." Certainly, he added, "another big percentage of [gulf] oysters are gone."
The commission unanimously approved a season that starts Saturday and runs through Jan. 31 for most of the harvest areas in Virginia. The exceptions are a portion of the James River where tongers will be allowed to work through April 30 as is customary, and Tangier and Pocomoke sounds, which open Dec. 1 through Feb. 28.
Wesson said there are no guarantees that Virginia's limited supply of oysters will last as long as the season. The commission also increased the daily limit per licensed oysterman from eight bushels to 12 in all areas except the Tangier and Pocomoke sounds, where Tangier Island watermen favored an 8 bushel limit to ration the harvest.
Also unknown is the effect that the hurricanes will have on oyster prices. At the start of last year's oyster season in Virginia, watermen received around $25 a bushel. Since the hurricanes this year, oysters from private grounds have commanded up to $40 a bushel.
Wesson said the price increases are driving harvest interest. Only about 60 watermen harvested oysters in the state last year. Judging by license sales, he said that number could triple this year.
Virginia's oyster harvests have been mere shadows of the state's former harvests that were once measured in the millions of bushels. Diseases Dermo and MSX spread throughout the Chesapeake Bay in the mid-1980s in an epidemic that wiped out oysters and forced Virginia packers to turn to the Gulf of Mexico. The bay's current oyster population is about 2 percent of pre-disease levels.
While Virginia harvests dipped as low as 20,000 to 30,000 bushels in recent years, last year's catch reached about 80,000 bushels.
Wesson said this year's harvest likely will fall short of that mark. More troubling is that spawning has been largely unsuccessful for the past three years, he noted. Wet weather has affected the survival of oyster larvae.
That means the state's oyster population is likely to dip to rock bottom after this year. "What's harvested this year is gone," Wesson said.
Managers will open most public grounds to offset the Gulf Coast's storm damage
Sep 28, 2005
NEWPORT NEWS -- Fisheries managers will open Virginia's oyster season Saturday on most public grounds to support local shucking houses that have lost their important Gulf of Mexico oyster supply to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
"It is going to be an interesting and hard season for the few processors that survive," Virginia Marine Resources Commission oyster manager Jim Wesson told the commission yesterday.
In years past, the commission has staggered opening dates for the oyster season to ensure a small, but constant, supply of Virginia oysters to the state's shucking industry.
Hurricane Katrina changed that logic because it harmed or destroyed eastern Louisiana oyster grounds that provide about 60 percent of the oysters that Virginia processors shuck.
Wesson originally proposed the simultaneous opening to tide the dozen or so Virginia shucking houses over until Nov. 1 when Texas and western Louisiana oysters typically begin entering the market. But last week those areas were slammed by Hurricane Rita.
Wesson said the extent of the damage to gulf oysters from Rita has not been established, "but a lot of their facilities [that handled gulf oysters] were hit by that 20-foot storm surge." Certainly, he added, "another big percentage of [gulf] oysters are gone."
The commission unanimously approved a season that starts Saturday and runs through Jan. 31 for most of the harvest areas in Virginia. The exceptions are a portion of the James River where tongers will be allowed to work through April 30 as is customary, and Tangier and Pocomoke sounds, which open Dec. 1 through Feb. 28.
Wesson said there are no guarantees that Virginia's limited supply of oysters will last as long as the season. The commission also increased the daily limit per licensed oysterman from eight bushels to 12 in all areas except the Tangier and Pocomoke sounds, where Tangier Island watermen favored an 8 bushel limit to ration the harvest.
Also unknown is the effect that the hurricanes will have on oyster prices. At the start of last year's oyster season in Virginia, watermen received around $25 a bushel. Since the hurricanes this year, oysters from private grounds have commanded up to $40 a bushel.
Wesson said the price increases are driving harvest interest. Only about 60 watermen harvested oysters in the state last year. Judging by license sales, he said that number could triple this year.
Virginia's oyster harvests have been mere shadows of the state's former harvests that were once measured in the millions of bushels. Diseases Dermo and MSX spread throughout the Chesapeake Bay in the mid-1980s in an epidemic that wiped out oysters and forced Virginia packers to turn to the Gulf of Mexico. The bay's current oyster population is about 2 percent of pre-disease levels.
While Virginia harvests dipped as low as 20,000 to 30,000 bushels in recent years, last year's catch reached about 80,000 bushels.
Wesson said this year's harvest likely will fall short of that mark. More troubling is that spawning has been largely unsuccessful for the past three years, he noted. Wet weather has affected the survival of oyster larvae.
That means the state's oyster population is likely to dip to rock bottom after this year. "What's harvested this year is gone," Wesson said.