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Commercial Oyster Boats in East Matagorda

26K views 155 replies 41 participants last post by  karstopo 
#1 ·
I fished East Matagorda over the weekend and witnessed dozens of Oyster boats in the bay. These guys were ganged up on top of all the beds on the West end of the bay. At the end of the day I saw boats packed to the top with sacks of oysters. I doubt there will be much left once they are done. I heard state congressman Bonnen has a target on them after what these jackasses did to Christmas Bay. The beds were totally destroyed. I am not sure those guys give a flip about the resource.
 
#3 ·
We have been invaded. By who, I don't know.

We have a place under the bridge and the same half dozen or so boats have unloaded oysters in our cove for years. Never mind that they are all illegals. This year there is the usual gang unloading in our cove, one group unloading under the bridge on the south side of the ICW, and one group by the little bridge on cemetery road.

This is a straight up gang rape.
 
#8 ·
I doubt there will be much left once they are done. I heard state congressman Bonnen has a target on them after what these jackasses did to Christmas Bay. The beds were totally destroyed. I am not sure those guys give a flip about the resource.
I heard the old Galveston oyster companies still carry a lot of pull in Austin. Oystering should be shut down for 10 years, and let the bays recover. Order something else on the restaurant menu. How hard is that?
 
#10 ·
Probably pretty hard if you're in the oyster business,I'm not a fan of the big oyster companies but shutting down someone's living gives me the creeps.Alot of treehuggers want to shut down coal mining and any other fossil fuel business without thinking of the people that make their living in it.
 
#9 ·
I'm confused on this HB 51. I watched the video where Dennis Bonnen was giving them heck. Every one of the commercial oysters guys that came up to testify were in support of HB 51 ???? How can that be? I need the cliff notes for this bill. lol
 
#13 ·
With all due respect guys, I personally side scanned Christmas bay last year for oysters and there wasn't really anything left for them to 'destroy'. All the years of high salinity is what killed all the oysters in Chrismas as well as 85% of all of Galveston Bay reef. All they did was **** a few oysters off the crests of the reefs and it was probly pretty hard pickins. Where they took oyster from isn't really much use to the trout that's for sure. Also all the raking that oyster boats do helps keep the substrate from being silted over. In east bay and in trinity the oyster companies have actually spent a lot of there fuel raking old buried beds to try to bring substrate back up to the top so new reef can form. There's not a lot of oyster left out there; id hate to be trying to make a living doing that after 11 years of drought. That's what has removed all the beds from the bays.


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#17 ·
With all due respect guys, I personally side scanned Christmas bay last year for oysters and there wasn't really anything left for them to 'destroy'. All the years of high salinity is what killed all the oysters in Chrismas as well as 85% of all of Galveston Bay reef. All they did was **** a few oysters off the crests of the reefs and it was probly pretty hard pickins. Where they took oyster from isn't really much use to the trout that's for sure. Also all the raking that oyster boats do helps keep the substrate from being silted over. In east bay and in trinity the oyster companies have actually spent a lot of there fuel raking old buried beds to try to bring substrate back up to the top so new reef can form. There's not a lot of oyster left out there; id hate to be trying to make a living doing that after 11 years of drought. That's what has removed all the beds from the bays.

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I'm not really on top of what happened in Christmas Bay or what remains of the reefs there. I have only heard stories.

I can personally attest to what has and is happening in Matagorda. Maybe living "amongst the oyster boats" under the bridge gives me a unique perspective.

I can absolutely tell you that two things are true.

1) When we bought our place twelve years ago, there were a few oyster boats that were all run by locals. Over time, and up until this year, the number of boats increased to around 10, at any given time, all run by folks that are not from here. These boys only rarely went East, but they absolutely bum rushed West Matagorda Bay. I would venture a guess that virtually every oyster was offloaded at one place (directly across from my condo) during this period.

2) This year the game has changed (see my earlier post). It's difficult to guess how many boats there are but there are enough that they now have three locations where they offload. I'd guess we are between 2 and 3 dozen boats.

It's also difficult for me to buy that drought got Christmas Bay, when I know it was a mob that got West Matagorda. I'd believe that all three bay systems have had roughly the same rainfall over the past ten years.
 
#20 ·
Dennis Bonnen
March 29 at 4:04pm ·
Most Texans are unaware of a crisis affecting one of our precious natural resources that will take generations to recover. Oysters are the foundation of our entire aquatic ecosystem, positively impacting other marine species and keeping our bays healthy. Leaders in Texas conservation, including the Coastal Conservation Association and The Galveston Bay Foundation, have expressed grave concern for the future of oysters in Texas and the negative impact of overharvesting on our entire ecosystem. On Tuesday in the House Culture, Recreation, and Tourism Committee, I spoke out very directly and forcefully against the lies, bullying and underhanded tactics being used by several unscrupulous oyster operations in Texas who have no regard for our state laws and regulations. These operators overharvest our bays, destroy our reefs, deplete our oyster supply, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars while repeatedly denying their abuse of our coastal waters. Most recently, a company caused a massive marine pile-up in Brazoria County while challenging our local elected leaders when asked to rectify the situation. In yesterday's hearing, this same company admitted that over the past four years they have hired former investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino, who personally called to threaten and intimidate me this morning. It is time for Texas to restore integrity and honesty in this industry while, most importantly, strengthening the protection of our ecosystem."

From State Rep. Dennis Bonnen's Facebook page
 
#23 ·
Just so everyone understands I'm not for these boats over harvesting and trashing out the bay,but I'm not for a 10 year ban on the way some locals make their living and feed their family.Ive never seen the government stick their beak in and cut anything off then give it back,and if they did give it back who would do it then?All the small time locals would have been out of business after the first year,them here comes the out of town foreign boats.
 
#33 ·
The last two years in Galveston have seen multiple 500 and 1000 year flood events...
http://www.texastribune.org/2016/12/06/houston-flooding-boomtown-flood-town-plain-text/
Hope this helps provide information, really only intend to provide some information from the perspective of being the one person that has side scanned the entire Galveston Bay Complex and what really happened out there under the water.

Floods ... Yes, that's going to help the oyster population tremendously. First of all, all that fresh water finally pushed out or killed the the high salinity predators that were decimating the reefs... But, temporarily it also killed a lot of Trinity bay and upper Galveston bay oyster due to staying fresh too long. All those oysters that were killed will be substrate for the 'spat' (oyster larvae) to land on right now. Right now we finally have the right conditions if it will just last like that for a couple of years.

Also, with regard to the Karankawa Indian comment.... no, they didn't need to turn their oyster beds... they didn't have the problem with sediment runoff that we have today. There were no agricultural crops, it was all grasslands that protected the soils. Today we primarily have unprotected soils in almost all rural areas for miles and miles and those unprotected soils are available to translocation from rain and erosion. Find a map of Mattagorda at the mouth of the Colorado from 100 years ago and there was no road to the beach... that road to the beach was built on sediment that formed from after the industrial / agricultural age. Over about 40 years that system changed dramatically. Im not saying we go back to that... because we can't. We have to look at how to maximize everything for all parties involved and it's not a one variable equation. Its multi variate with lots of problems to think thru. I'm not saying that harvest doesn't need to be managed either. But currently I can tell you that oyster boat activity on reefs that are harvested is helpful to sustaining a healthy fishery for us. If not, it would all be buried in sediment. Also, I think its only fair that everyone knows that it's not the oyster industry that has decimated our reefs, it was 8 years of draught and high salinity predators to oysters. I can tell you from personal observation that is what wiped it out. While it takes 3 years for an oyster to become big enough to harvest.. it only takes 3 months for new reef to form on hard substrate that was turned up... and trout and reds don't care what size oyster is on it... as long as it's live it's better fishing.

I also am not for or against the oyster industry.. I remember Saturday Night Live long ago when RosanaRosanaDanna said "eating raw oysters are like chewing on a flemball".. Classic. LOL
 
#34 ·
http://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_br_v3400_006_oysters.pdf

"GROWTH

Growth of oysters in Texas waters is relatively fast and occurs throughout the year. Under ideal conditions, spat may reach 1 inch in three months, 2 inches in seven months, and 3 inches in 15 months. But growth can be variable, and oysters of identical age may differ remarkably in size. Probably most Texas oysters reach the legal market size of three inches in 18 to 20 months."
 
#35 ·
A couple of things. First off, Christmas Bay beds were not "totally destroyed". I have commercially oystered in Christmas Bay off and on for 30 years and there are still plenty of oysters there. The bay is too shallow to dredge so every oyster that was harvested was done so by hand. The same technology deployed buy the first humans to visit our shores tens of thousands of years ago. Our hands.

All of the shell base is still there as "cooners" do very little long term damage to the foundation of the reef and there are still plenty of oysters to harvest in Christmas Bay. If anything they may have knocked down and spread some of the shell from the tops to the deeper areas of the long reefs that criss cross the bay which is a good thing.

The problem arises with TPWD closing down about 25 of the 32 designated "approved" areas due to "over harvest". This forced the price up to record levels and created a "refugee" trail from every closed bay system into fewer and fewer bays that remained open.

In late Februrary for the first time in 30 years I saw another oyster boat in Christmas Bay other than mine. Then there were 4, then 8 all the way up to about 40 plus people "cooning" from their trucks based on the south shoreline.

Then when the Spring tides came the water became too deep to "****" but still not deep enough for the dredge boats. So they left. I am now back to being the only boat on the bay.

Most of them ended up in East Matagorda where with the spring tides they can get their dredges to work.

So there are a lot of issues TPWD is working on but the biggest is an oyster license buyback which is included in HB-51. Which if it passes will voluntarily reduce the number of working licenses on the water.

The last few years have been kind of a perfect storm for the Oyster fishery in Texas. Years of drought, followed by a few floods, red tide, dermo and extremely poor management have taken its toll.

Hopefully they will establish a buyback system and get to work voluntarily reducing the number of boats to a more sustainable number.
 
#37 ·
A couple of things to think about as well.

There are 10's of thousands of square miles of bays and reefs that are in closed waters and have gone untouched for years. Kind of a regulatory "sanctuary" off limits to harvest. Sabine Lake has one of the biggest untouched oyster reefs left in world.

Drive a piling in the water and come back in 18 months. You can't keep an oyster off of it. They are extremely prolific capable of spawning on a level it is hard for mammals to understand. We just have to make sure the culch (base) is there for them to grow on.

What we don't need to do is anything "regulatory" that will increase the price, make the resource more valuable and thus harder to buy back and retire licenses. And for god sakes closing one bay and forcing a horde of barbarians into fewer and fewer open bays is not a practical management tool. Your resting one while raping another.
 
#45 ·
A couple of things to think about as well.

There are 10's of thousands of square miles of bays and reefs that are in closed waters and have gone untouched for years. Kind of a regulatory "sanctuary" off limits to harvest. Sabine Lake has one of the biggest untouched oyster reefs left in world.

Drive a piling in the water and come back in 18 months. You can't keep an oyster off of it. They are extremely prolific capable of spawning on a level it is hard for mammals to understand. We just have to make sure the culch (base) is there for them to grow on.
10,000 square miles is 100 miles X 100 miles. (You can look it up.) So if a bay is 10 miles across, from shore to barrier island, it would have to be 1000 miles long to come up with 10K square miles. I don't know how many of those sized spaces are closed to oystering. I truly don't. But I'm guessing that there can't be too many areas 10 miles wide and 1000 miles long that are closed to oystering. And that's what it would take for there to be "tens of thousands of square miles closed to oystering".

For the record, Sabine lake is 14 miles long and 7 miles wide. That's a total of 84 square miles, and you say that is one of the biggest untouched oyster reefs left in the world. It would take about ten Sabine Lakes to make a single 10K sq. mile sanctuary.

What I do know is this: these days, TPWD typically closes bays because of a "low abundance of oysters", not to make a "sanctuary". Don't believe me - believe them. http://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20161031a These are bays where the oysters are in short supply, not where they have been protected by some mythical sanctuary.

What's really funny is that you have been a big "man-made global warming" proponent, but you still b**ch about other people being "liberal", whenever they suggest anything that makes life harder on oystermen. You fire back with whatever you like, I'm not going to come back here to argue with you. But other people will notice that the things you say never add up. You're on the side of oystermen, no matter what.

BTW - according to you, all we need to do to protect the oyster population is to drive pilings everywhere. They will all be full of oysters within 18 months. It's a shame all the biologists don't just come to you for advice.
 
#40 ·
Everybody who has ever had the pleasure of eating a Christmas Bay oyster please take the time to contact your state Rep and Lance Robinson with TPWD. Let them know you do not want this treasure to be closed to the harvest of oysters. There are no other oysters like it in the State and maybe in the nation. The problem I have with the big buyers like Halili, Misho and others is they have private oyster leases. Every square inch of public reef closed just makes their "private" leases more valuable.

So heck yes they want it closed. If it is closed nobody will ever eat another oyster from this bay and a true treasure will be lost.

It won't just be closed to commercial harvest it will be closed to everyone.

This from the Galveston Daily News:
Oyster companies urge state to close a bay amid uproar over conditions
Galveston Daily News:
http://www.galvnews.com/news/article_e36213af-271c-5e3c-bfce-7e2ac50c4fcd.ht
ml
April 11, 2017

A group of major Texas oyster companies and a coastal advocacy group are
urging the state to close a small bay in Brazoria County amid uproar there
over oyster harvesting.

The Texas Outdoor Coastal Council, a nonprofit focused on coastal issues, is
gathering signatures for a petition asking the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Director of Coastal Fisheries to immediately halt oyster harvesting in
Christmas Bay, according to a letter obtained by The Daily News.

Several of the Gulf's largest oyster companies have signed onto the
petition. Those include Prestige Oysters, Hillman Shrimp and Seafood Co.,
Casterline Seafood Co. and Misho's Oyster Co., according to a list provided
by the group.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department considers bacteria conditions and the
maturity and quantity of oysters in an area when determining whether to keep
it open, said Lance Robinson, Coastal Fisheries regional director at Texas
Parks and Wildlife.

Christmas Bay, near Surfside, was closed to oyster harvesting between 2000
and 2014 because of high levels of bacteria, according to the state health
department. The health department reopened the bay to oystering beginning in
the 2015 season, a spokesman said.

Oyster industry leaders are calling for a renewed ban on oyster harvesting
of Christmas Bay because of its sensitive ecosystem, Prestige Oysters
co-owner Lisa Halili said. The area is one of few places in the state with
near-pristine water quality and should not be open to commercial fishing,
Halili said.

"We're more than happy to give up this one little sliver of the area if it's
a sensitive ecosystem," Halili said, adding industry players have been in
talks with environmental groups about the bay ecosystem.

Halili insisted the industry's support is not related to an ongoing
controversy in Brazoria County over concerns about damage to grasslands
around Christmas Bay, which environmental groups say was caused by some
oyster harvesters, she said.

During this public season, which started Nov. 1 and runs through May 1, more
oyster harvesters have been working in Christmas Bay, which has created some
tensions with recreational anglers there, Robinson said. The increased
traffic is likely because other public reefs along the Gulf coast are closed
this season, Robinson said.

More than a 100 harvesters have licenses to take oysters on public reefs,
Robinson said. Many of the major oyster companies own private leases in the
bay but do sometimes purchase oysters from smaller operations.

Prestige Oysters does not harvest in Christmas Bay and hadn't purchased any
oysters out of Christmas Bay in about five weeks, Halili said.

Because the water in Christmas Bay is very shallow and the areas to
cultivate oysters are near-shore, many oystermen working in the area have
been walking or driving all-terrain vehicles through the grasslands to get
oysters, said Scott Jones of the Galveston Bay Foundation. Harvesting in the
area also was stirring up sediments and disturbing rookery islands, Jones
said.

Galveston Bay Foundation intends to ask the state to close Christmas Bay to
oyster harvesting, Jones said.

The increased traffic of oyster harvesters also upset recreational anglers
who use public boat ramps at Christmas Bay because commercial boaters were
tying their boats to the ramps for long periods of time.

The Brazoria County Commissioners Court on March 28 voted to put up signs
prohibiting commercial harvesters from using the boat ramps. Because the
county owns the boat ramps, the signs can only apply to those areas,
Robinson said. The state otherwise regulates oyster harvesting.

Of late, fewer oystermen have been fishing in Christmas Bay, which Robinson
said is likely because they have found better places to harvest farther
south.

"We're seeing fewer boats out there but I'd hate to speculate as to why,"
Robinson said.
________________________________________
 
#47 ·
Well, the good thing is that there are big areas in each bay that are off limits to oyster harvest. That is a good thing because as long as those areas are full of oysters you have the basis for replenishing the harvested areas. Take a look at the oyster harvest map and look at what zones are always closed. In our area it is some pretty key areas that are full of oysters, like the whole area around Chinquapin.

I think what is ticking people off isn't the harvest of oysters, it is that these companies roll in with big bunches of boats and systematically strip all of the reefs that they are allowed to oyster. This isn't our local guys going out and scratching out a living. These are folks who are not from here coming in with a fleet of boats and just dragging the bottom clean. And THAT is what rubs folks the wrong way. They don't have any stake in the fishery or in the area. They just take, and take, and take and then leave.

The thing is, there just aren't hardly any of the local guys down here oystering anymore. We hardly have any crabbers left and not too many shrimpers either. I'm not saying that is good or bad, it just is what it is. I'd imagine it's dang hard to make a living at it when these guys come in and pick the bay clean.
 
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